JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The New South Wales government has committed a A$17-million investment in its 2015/16 Budget to halve the time it takes to assess state mining projects.

NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee applauded the New South Wales government’s commitment to address the “broken planning system”, which he said kept 1 800 jobs in the Hunter Valley hanging in the balance.

Galilee stated that, across New South Wales, an estimated 20 000 current and potential mining-related jobs were caught up in a “state planning system that moves with glacial speed”.

“The Budget allocated funding to deliver the Premier’s commitment to halve the time it takes to assess state significant mining projects. It is important that this funding is now used to deliver real reform,” he said in a statement in response to this week’s state Budget announcement.

While welcoming the commitment to speed up mining approvals, Galilee raised concern over the lack of a significant funding commitment for the Resources for Regions programme and a fall in mining royalties.

“A fall in mining royalties demonstrates the need for planning reforms that deliver faster project approvals,” he said.

Over the last financial year, mining revenues fell by about A$60-million to be A$300-million lower than Treasury forecasts.

“Last year, we warned that the Treasury forecast on royalties was overly optimistic and we have been proven right. This year, the Treasury is forecasting royalties to grow by about 12% on average over the forward estimates and to deliver nearly A$6-billion to New South Wales taxpayers over the next four years.

“This again, is very optimistic considering expectations of moderate growth in world coal prices. Although demand for New South Wales coal will continue to rise, export volumes will not deliver the forecast revenues unless key mining projects are approved in New South Wales,” Galilee said.

The NSW Minerals Council highlighted the funding commitments for Hunter Valley, including the reservation of A$100-million from the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund and commitments to reserve A$92-million for the Singleton Bypass and A$68-million for the Muswellbrook Bypass from the Rebuilding NSW fund, as positive announcements.

However, it stressed that mining communities would be disappointed by the lack of any significant additional funding commitment to the Resources for Regions programme.

“Confirmation in the Budget of the continued allocation of 3% of Restart NSW funding to the Resources for Regions programme is good, but the A$9-million actually reserved is miniscule given total additional Restart NSW reservations are nearly A$4.3-billion.”

Galilee said mining communities across New South Wales would be hoping for further funding announcements on Resources for Regions in the near future.

“Overall, the Budget has gone some way to acknowledging the need to get our state moving through faster approval of major projects. However, there is a risk that the government continues to underestimate the impact on mining communities of uncertainty surrounding the New South Wales planning system, and a fall in commodity prices.”

Mining is the state’s most valuable export industry. The sector employs 35 000 people and mining companies spent about A$13.6-billion across the state on wages and business purchases in the last financial year, including A$3.3-billion in Sydney.