McPhillamys, page-20

Reading the documents,I don't beleive the issue is community at all. There is always a level of NIMBYism in any project, rarely does it stop something going ahead. There is plenty of support for the project, and these problems are nearly always solved by throwing a bit more money at the community and councils where the project is taking place.


The issue is really around the water licences. Reading documents on the planning portal, Regis need to wait for some changes to policy and procedure being passed through by DPIE water which will support the project. That is government beurocracy and takes forever.

Some excerps from a comms doc from DPIE water to the assessment team:

We understand that the proponent is currently having difficulty in demonstrating that it can obtain the water access licences necessary for you to complete your assessment. I can advise you of some policy developments underway within DPIE Water’s statewide policy
program that may be relevant to your assessment of this project and residual water licensing
matters.

DPIE Water is currently developing a policy to guide decisions around what to do with surrendered water access licences. The
proposed approach will be with the Minister for consideration in the coming months.

DPIE Water is working on updated rules guiding the trading of water, including in some circumstances to allow trading from a regulated to unregulated water sources and between unregulated water sources. We expect that these rules to be in place in the next 6-12 months

...the department intends to implement a regular data update and refresh process, where this data would be updated into a new static
version, likely on an annual basis, commencing from July 2022

Please note we are currently working with NRAR on any volumetric implications for the project once the hydroline data set is updated in 2022. We plan to provide this information to you in July.