NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee has come out fighting against claims the coal mining industry is declining at a Singleton Business Chamber breakfast on Tuesday.
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“There’s a saying in politics that, ‘perception is the reality’ and that’s what’s happening here,” he said.
“The challenges we are facing are based on perception not reality.”
Mr Galilee cited an International Energy Agency 2014 report which said the current consumption of world power now at 13361 millions of tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) will increase to 18290 mtoe by 2040.
“Coal’s percentage of the world energy is 35 per cent and will go down to 24 per cent but the volume of coal will still increase, it’s a smaller percentage of a bigger pie,” he said.
“We know India has planned 50 to 60 coal power plant projects, these are modern technology plants that require high quality coal product which we have here in the Hunter Valley.”
Mr Galilee took aim at the State government’s planning system and the recent draft changes to the Mining - State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) that remove the overall economic benefits of a mine as the principal factor in determining projects gain approval.
He argued the SEPP made no mention of economic considerations before which was why it was added in 2013, to create balance.
“This wasn’t explained properly when the SEPP changes were introduced and mining opposition groups latched onto this,” he said.
Mr Galilee (pictured right) argued community support has been consistently strong for mining here but the perception in Sydney is that the community is opposed to it.
“The state government has taken the easy option (by attempting to remove the economic clause from the SEPP) and it’s cowardice of the first order and not the leadership you deserve,” he said.
“There’s nowhere this will be felt more.
“We understand some local people have genuine concerns but there is overwhelming support for these projects.”
The picture for mining isn’t looking rosy at the moment according to NSW Mining Council statistics comparing the financial years of 2012-13 to 2013-2014.
In 2012-13, 3202 people were employed in the mining industry in the Hunter with $424million in salaries supported by 926 supplier businesses and contributed a total of $2.3billion PA to the economy.
Fast forward to 2013-14 where 2166 were employed in mining earning $290m in salaries supported by 726 suppliers and worth $1.8billion PA.
“You can’t rip half a billion dollars out of a community and not feel it,” Mr Galilee said.
“There are number of mining projects at the very last hurdle and if the draft changes to the SEPP were introduced and made retrospective it could have a detrimental impact to existing projects close to approval.”
Mr Galilee emphasised there’s disconnect between the decision makers and the Hunter communities.
“If the planning system is so great why doesn’t the government put their projects through it?”
“There’s no PAC for the WestConnex Highway which will require the compulsory acquisition of 200 homes and it will inconvenience thousands of people for months even years.
“Yet for private projects if a small number of people makes enough noise the government will change the rules for them.”
