O’Connell: Party politicians neglecting local jobs

INDEPENDENT candidate Kirsty O’Connell has called out major parties for not offering a comprehensive plan that protects local jobs during the Upper Hunter’s transition away from coal.

Ms O’Connell said during the by-election campaign, no major party has been able to explain why “they want to sabotage local workers by approving new coal mines.”

“The Nationals, Labor, The Shooters Fishers and Farmers and One Nation have repeatedly said during this campaign that they support new coal mines yet none of them can explain how approving more mining will secure local jobs,” Ms O’Connell said.

“It’s pretty simple, new coal won’t secure local jobs. It will flood a market that is already oversupplied and shoot our local coal miners in the foot while simultaneously adding to the massive air quality and water impacts that we’re experiencing, deterring investment from other industries and ruining more agricultural land that we could put to better use,” she said.

“The Government’s failure to shore up local jobs by extinguishing expired exploration leases at Muswellbrook West and Monash (in Pokolbin) is particularly odd. These leases aren’t creating a single local job  and they are deterring investment in the Critical Equine and Viticulture Clusters, which the Government claims it wants to protect,” she said.

“Why is the Government prioritising the interests of the Chinese-owned Yancoal and the Japanese-owned Idemitsu ahead of local businesses and workers?” questioned Ms O’Connell.

Ms O’Connell said now is the time to say no to new coal and exploration, with existing coal mining companies choosing to produce nearly 100 million tonnes less than they are approved.

“On the one hand, they quietly produce reports that show that Muswellbrook and Singleton will be the worst hit areas when the world moves away from fossil fuels and yet when it comes to this by-election they don’t have the courage to have an honest conversation,” Ms O’Connell said.

“Our workers don’t need more lip service from Party Politicians about how much they love coal and they certainly don’t need to hear misleading claims that we’ll still be mining coal in 50 years. The cynicism of these Parties is unbelievable,” she said.

“While they play politics, our community is losing its opportunity to prepare for the changes that are coming whether we like it or not,” she said.

Ms O’Connell is proposing the following urgent actions:

1. Immediately pause further approvals for new coal, gas and related infrastructure;
2. Develop a comprehensive economic, social and environmental plan for the future of the Upper Hunter that is informed by proper cumulative impact studies for air and water and that includes an integrated masterplan for the 6,000 hectares of final voids that the Government has permitted coal companies to create;
3. Offer immediate financial support and advice to assist coal-focussed small businesses to grow and diversify their businesses;
4. Provide certainty for everyone with permanent buffer zones around key industries, communities, waterways and agricultural land to protect it from mining and heavy industry;
5. Extinguish zombie mining leases, zombie PELs on the Liverpool Plains and expired exploration licenses including Muswellbrook West in the Upper Hunter (which is deterring investment in the neighbouring Critical Equine Cluster) and Monash at Pokolbin (which is deterring investment in the adjacent Critical Viticulture Cluster).

For more information on where candidates stand: Voting 101: Upper Hunter by-election.