Mr BAYLEY - To continue that, I'd be interested to understand a bit more of some of the EPBC challenges - you talked about the Sassafras scheme and some of the challenges there with species. What are you confronting when it comes to the Northern Midlands scheme?
Mr KNEEBONE - The particular challenge has been one of offsets this time. There's been a material change in the Commonwealth approach to managing the impact on threatened species. Particularly for Northern Midlands, it's been quolls and devils, and their foraging habitat, but also their denning habitat. The project would have had temporary impacts across some devils' denning and foraging habitat, but only temporary. But we're now being required to find permanent offsets for that impact and find a substantial piece of land and have a covenant put over it in order to permanently offset that. That's a major change.
For instance, in our previous projects, we've cleared entire dam sites that have involved denning habitat. We've relocated animals and done all those sorts of things. We got full EPBC approval but we weren't required to have offsets for it.
Mr BAYLEY - The good old days, eh?
Mr KNEEBONE - Not the good old days. It was going to be forested, it was a forest reserve that we cleared. We're now trying to find those places and we're going to be challenged because it has to be specific habitat to offset the impacts of the particular species. So, finding burrowing crayfish, or swift parrot, or green and gold frog habitat is not going to be the same as finding devils' habitat. We just can't go and find one block of land that's going to allow us to say, 'we've got covenants over that, we've protected that for a period of time'.
It's certainly not a bad thing; it is just an increase in the level of diligence and interpretation of the act and application of it by the federal government.
Mr BAYLEY - Do you know the extent of clearance that you need to undertake? Presumably, it's under the pipeline, is that correct?
Mr KNEEBONE - It's 17.6 hectares.
Mr BAYLEY - Is that just your works? Presumably that doesn't take into account any clearance, let's say, the irrigation users, the farmers may need to do in terms of putting in a pivot and so forth, clearing some of that remnant -
Mr KNEEBONE - If they have to do that, they have to get their own Forest Practices Plan. What I can say to you is the other endangered species in the Northern Midlands is lowland native grasses. Our Farm Water Access Plan identifies those areas on people's properties and they're excluded from irrigation, they can't be used for irrigation. They're excluded and they are protected through the Farm Water Access Plan process.
CHAIR - We have one minute.
