Hunter Heartbreak: Human cost of NSW Govt decisions as the devastation begins to sink in

The mining industry and supply chain businesses in NSW have suffered a ‘brutal double blow’ following the Planning Assessment Commission’s rejection of two coal mine projects in regional NSW.

 

The Anglo American Drayton South mine and Cullen Bullen project in the Blue Mountains will not go ahead, despite high public support and the potential loss of hundreds of jobs. 

 

And the human cost is mounting, with more around 500 people and their families now facing an uncertain future and likely to add to the already growing number of people out of work in the Hunter Valley.

 

Suzie Henry, creator of the I Support The Drayton South Project Facebook group, which has almost 2,500 members, is devastated at the announcement. Her family, like many others, will be forced to pack up life as they know it in her birth town of Muswellbrook, including selling their house and all of their belongings.

 

“It took my husband 20 years to get a job in the mines. He’s only been there for 3 years and we are gutted,” Suzie said today.

 

Drayton employee and winner of the Rising Star Award at the inaugural NSW Women in Mining Awards, Gabrielle Horn, says jobs in the Hunter are scarce, and this is making the situation even worse. But it’s the way in which employees found out about the decision that angered her the most.

 

“To find out by reading the front page of the Daily Telegraph by a story that was leaked before Anglo American even had a chance to tell its employees is completely spineless,” she said.

 

Shockwaves are being felt across the community, with many mine workers spending their entire working lives at Drayton. Therese Kilby’s husband is a fourth generation coal miner who has worked at Drayton for a quarter of a century and, like Gabrielle, wasn’t informed about the decision before it apparently leaked to the media.

 

“To find out about the PAC rejection via the media earlier this morning was just gut-wrenching, considering the employees had not been told at their 7am knock off,’ Therese Kilby told the NSW Minerals Council.

 

And over at Coalpac’s Cullen Bullen mine in the Blue Mountains, mine workers anxiously awoke to news that their jobs are also now at risk due to a PAC rejection.

 

“We’re hanging on to the few jobs left by our fingernails and now have nowhere to turn. We don’t even know if we’re getting paid this week,” one employee said.

 

Coalpac, owners of the Invincible and Cullen Valley mines, said that they are ‘extremely disappointed’ in the decision by the NSW Planning Assessment Commission to reject modifications to existing approvals for both mines to reopen. With both applications now refused, Coalpac is likely to go into liquidation, ending more than 100 years of mining history.

 

The NSW Minerals Council is calling on the state’s mining communities to stand together and tell Premier Mike Baird, Minister for Planning Pru Goward and Minister for Resources & Energy Anthony Roberts that it’s just not good enough to sit by and watch hundreds of jobs being lost.

 

If you think mining jobs are worth fighting for then now is the time to act. Go to voiceformining.com.au and take 60 secs to send an email to Premier Mike Baird and his ministers. Tell the Premier and his Ministers that these families and our NSW mining communities deserve better.