Decade in Review: Mixed results on mining laws for landowners

In October 2016, the state Labor goverment announced a review of the Mining Act 1971, with the news initially welcomed by farming groups.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell said the act was "well and truly overdue for renewal".

But by November 2017, concerns had been raised about the bill being put to parliament, even as consultation sessions were still being held in regional areas.

The Liberal opposition voted down the bill, but by August 2018 - following the election that put them in government - they had introduced their own bill to parliament.

Yorke Peninsula Landowners' Group chair Joy Wundersitz said this was still "Labor's bill" and the balance was weighted too heavily in favour of mining companies, at the expense of landowners.

It was originally adjourned in November 2018, after four Liberal MPs said they would crossed the floor, but passed in October, after Labor agreed to support it.

This debate followed on from years of concerns from farmers, with former lobby group SA Farmers Federation, saying a 2010 update to the act did not go far enough.

A rally in the Adelaide CBD was held in 2014, just days after the Hillside Mine was approved at Ardrossan, with landowners across the state sharing concerns about mining, including the potential of fracking.

The Roadmap for Unconventional Gas Projects in SA was released in May 2012, by the Labor government, showed exploration for coal seam gas, shale and tight gas was under way, with exploration licenses covering parts of the Coonawarra and near the Clare Valley.

Then-Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the sector had the potential to deliver hundreds of millions, "if not billions" of dollars to SA.

Many farming residents in the affected regions responded with calls to "lock the gate" and not allow exploration on their farms.

In June 2014, the seven local councils in the South East combined to call for a moratorium on fracking.

Then-Robe District Council mayor Peter Riseley said while some people believed a moratorium was too heavy-handed, it was a "safety net" overarching the whole process until other strategies were considered.

In March 2018, the Liberal party was elected to government, with a promise for a 10-year moratorium on fracking in the SE.

Three months later, Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the government had delivered on this promise with a "very clear directive in policy" to the Department of Energy and Mining to "not allow or even consider" any proposals for fracking.

"It couldn't be clearer and it couldn't be more definite," he said. "It is a 10-year ban from our perspective."

Limestone Coast Protection Alliance chairperson Angus Ralton said only a legislated ban would give the required "certainty".

Independent Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell introduced a private members bill, which was subsequently supported by the government and passed in September last year.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan said the bill had "no practical impact... but it does clearly have an important impact for the people of the SE".

SA Chamber of Mines and Energy chief executive officer Rebecca Knoll said the bill sent a worrying message that politics were more important than evidence-based industry regulation.

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