PRU GOWARD has promised to fight tooth and nail to stop a proposed mine at Sutton Forest.
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The Goulburn MP may find her self at odds with Liberal Party mining policy heading into next year’s State election but she is adamant she won’t let Cockatoo Coal have an easy ride.
At the second Southern Highlands Coal Action Group (SHCAG) community meeting in Bowral last Thursday night, Ms Goward promised the crowd of more than 200 the Coalition would make communities more inclusive in the planning process than the current Labor Government.
“As a local member I’m entitled to oppose a mine and I will. I believe with the reforms to 3A (NSW Planning Act) we will be able to ensure there are the environmental checks and tests and the concerns of the community will be properly reflected, and if that process is followed properly, that should be sufficient to close the mine,” she said.
Small Australian miners Cockatoo Coal have signed a $70 million deal with Korean steel manufacturing giant POSCO to buy an exploration lease from Anglo-American for the Sutton Forest area.
SHCAG head Peter Martin said Cockatoo could be approaching landowners seeking consent for exploratory drilling by the end of the year.
Ms Goward said the Coalition had committed to “ditching” part 3A of the Planning Act that allows the NSW Government to override local planning processes.
Yet Shadow Minster for Industry Duncan Gay recently told mining executives in Wollongong he would prefer to have a hands-off ministerial role and would give the industry a degree of autonomy.
Ms Goward told the group she had 200 copies of a pledge to send to Cockatoo Coal chairman Norm Seckold telling him the firm wasn’t welcome in the Highlands.
She also pointed out the mine wouldn’t benefit Australia.
“This coal is being bought so they (POSCO) avoid paying what are historically high world market prices for coal,” she said.
“We don’t know what arrangements governments enter into when they really want to attract a company to Australia.”
2GB presenter Alan Jones, who has property east of Robertson, told Ms Goward “he will do whatever he can to move the issue”.
“If we don’t start by saying no we have to end up saying yes. So we have to start by saying no way,” she said.
“We are part of the Sydney Catchment Authority, that is the strongest argument we have.”
Ms Goward again called on the federal government and particularly new Throsby MP Stephen Jones to get involved.
“They’ve got to. They after all are the party of carbon taxes, climate change and anti-coal. So they can put their money where their mouth is and I expect to see Mr Jones at the next meeting,” she said.
