The Office of Water Science (OWS), within the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, provides technical and secretariat support to the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC). The IESC provides independent scientific advice to Commonwealth and state regulators and ministers on the impact of coal resource development on water resources.
A key component of OWS’ support is assisting the IESC in engaging with external stakeholders – proponents; regulators; consultants; peak industry groups and environmental non-government organisations. Over the last two and a half years OWS has worked closely with the IESC to increase the level of engagement with these groups. This has resulted in a change in the perception of the IESC from being considered a ‘secret society’ to being recognised as an open and transparent entity who is willing to listen to the views of others in order to improve the quality of its advice.
This presentation details the success and failures of this engagement over the past three years. It explores the differences in response from various stakeholders, how that some activities had to be modified both ‘on the fly’ and at subsequent engagements and will qualify the change in response across this time period.
The presented results provide an interesting and informative case study of engagement with the coal resource industry specifically, but also with others involved in its development.