The NSW PAC, which independently arbitrates major decisions, last month denied Anglo American’s proposed Drayton South coal mine for the third time, despite the Department of Planning recommending it be approved.
The PAC said there were too many risks in relation to noise, air quality and other impacts.
Hunter Valley thoroughbred studs told the PAC they would be forced to leave the area if the controversial mine expansion was approved.
Drayton South was intended as the next logical step for the existing Drayton mine, and an earlier approval would have secured 500 Drayton employees to transition seamlessly to the new operation.
However, continuity was not achievable following the 2015 PAC recommendation to refuse the project and, after 30 years of successful operation, Drayton mine closed its gates for the final time on October 28.
Turning to the Illawarra, the PAC has been at work again, blocking the proposed underground expansion of Wollongong Coal’s Russell Vale colliery and attempts by the company to overturn the decision in the courts have failed.
This would have been a significant job creator for the Illawarra.
But that didn’t seem to register with NSW Greens MP and South Coast spokesman Justin Field last week.
He issued a missive decrying the number of unemployed young people on the South Coast and Southern Highlands of New South Wales, which hit 21.2% and is at its highest levels since July 2013.
The figures were published last week by the NSW Parliamentary Library in their January Labour Force Trends report incorporating data from the ABS Labour Force Survey.
"Youth unemployment on the South Coast and in the Southern Highlands is at crisis levels,” he said.
"Local youths are stuck in a vice of disadvantage – many who want to work can't find employment.
"While employment opportunities have grown slightly elsewhere across NSW, they have tanked in our region.”
Youth employment is at 15% in the Illawarra.
"Creating and sustaining regional jobs needs government investment and support, not an approach that victimises the unemployed or continually seeks to attack the pay and conditions of young workers,” Field said.
"I'm not going to pretend there is an easy solution to this, but at these crisis levels, all sides of politics, unions, employer groups, and the community has to work together to create real opportunities for our region's young people.”
This is despite the Greens having stood against every coal mining development in the Illawarra and south coast.
Hogsback is all for a good environment and gets the arguments about air and water quality put forward by thoroughbred owners and farmers with many thousands of hectares of land to cultivate and prosper from.
However, governments and the community at large should remember that there is a cost for knocking back developments. That cost may be a lost job opportunity for a young person struggling to make ends meet in the regional areas of NSW or Queensland.
