The NSW government made headlines for ‘banning’ new coal - so why are we fighting the state’s biggest ever coal project?
By Jo Lynch
Every Australian is being asked to cop on the chin the costs of climate disasters, whilst billion-dollar fossil fuel companies continue to exert inordinate influence over the actions of our elected representatives, writes Lock the Gate Alliance’s Jo Lynch.
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In March, headlines declared NSW would be the first state in Australia to ban new coal mines. Many thought a line was being drawn in the sand on climate.
Meanwhile, the largest coal project ever considered under NSW planning law was quietly being funnelled through the system.
The ‘greenfield coal ban’ changed very little in practice. NSW hasn’t approved a greenfield mine for nearly a decade, and no company has applied to build one for five years. The big new coal projects in NSW are all mine expansions, and many are bigger than new mines.
The NSW government has approved ten coal mine expansions or extensions since the last election. These projects don’t count as ‘greenfield’ because they sit adjacent to existing coal projects. But the scale of the projects, and their climate impacts, can be exactly the same. There are many more coal expansion projects in the NSW planning pipeline.
The biggest of them all is the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Continuation Project, which would see open-cut mining continue for another two decades in the Singleton, generating an additional 800 million tonnes of climate pollution.
The state’s independent planning body, the Independent Planning Commission NSW, which assesses controversial development proposals, will begin public hearings on HVO next week.
Environmental, community organisations and people on the frontline of coal and climate impacts are preparing to tell the Commission that our state cannot afford the pollution that would come from NSW’s largest ever coal project.
Increasing numbers of ordinary people in the Hunter and across Australia have lived through the worst bushfires, floods, storms or heatwaves in living memory. Many are still enduring the aftershocks – on their finances, mental health, work and housing security.
As with many regional places in Australia, the Hunter is exposed to the impacts of escalating extreme weather. 30% of Newcastle is now designated flood-prone land. As the risks to property increase from a destabilising climate, insurance premiums have increased too. Relatively affluent suburbs near the centre of Newcastle, like Wickham and Carrington, are predicted to be uninsurable by the end of this decade.
Further north, some people impacted by the Northern Rivers flooding in 2022 are still living in tents. There have been valiant and unparalleled community recovery efforts in the wake of disaster, but the impacts linger long after floodwaters recede.
If the HVO expansion is approved, it will drive more extreme weather and make life more expensive for everyone. It will add to the climate impacts already making it harder to grow food, keep communities sheltered, and transport essential goods.
Many people in the Hunter are directly employed in the mining sector, and many businesses and employers are reliant on the mines’ money. These people and the region as a whole needs a chance at a fresh start. The promised Future Jobs and Investment Authorities that would support mining regions and workers as coal mines close are still not in place after three years. It’s not clear why the state government isn’t prioritising this.
The NSW government never claimed it was banning greenfield mines for climate reasons, but that’s how many in the media and community interpreted it.
Climate change is overwhelming, and it’s natural to seek out reasons to be hopeful, or avoidant. But in this case, it’s worth looking deeper into the NSW government’s contradictions on climate.
Every Australian is being asked to cop on the chin the costs of climate disasters, whilst billion-dollar fossil fuel companies continue to exert inordinate influence over the actions of our elected representatives.
We need to be bold enough to refuse the unjust terms that corporations are asking us to accept. We have an opportunity to tell decision makers we see past the headlines, and that we demand better.
Anyone in Australia can make a submission to the IPC about the expansion of HVO until 2 August.
About the author
Jo Lynch is a lifelong resident of the Hunter, living and working on Awabakal Country. Jo is a Fine Arts Graduate of Newcastle University. She has been engaged in community organising for environmental, climate and social justice in the Hunter since 2017, and is the Newcastle Coordinator with Lock the Gate Alliance.
