Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Newcastle enjoys coming to my electorate for a bite to eat and a nice glass of the world’s best wines. She acknowledges that you cannot have tourists coming from Sydney and elsewhere having to drive on goat tracks. It is obvious to me that the state government does not have the capacity, even though the roads are its responsibility—if I had time I would say something else about that. The federal government will have to give some assistance. We already do in a modest way, but we are going to have to see some of the mining tax go into projects like the vineyard roads. And we will need to see money going into the Scone level railway crossing overpass, which I almost forgot to include in that list.

The state government spends about $200,000 in the Cessnock LGA on what I still call regional roads—roads that are basically a state government responsibility—including Broke Road through the wine country. That is $200,000 a year. Obviously Cessnock Council does not have the resources to do the work. Someone is going to have to help, but the state government, of any political persuasion, is going to have to do much, much better.

The other big issue in my electorate is of course land use conflict. Mining is growing and growing. It covers a fairly small area in geographical terms, but many would argue now that we have overdone open-cut coalmining in particular. There is a growing and changing mood about this. People understand and appreciate the wealth and the jobs coalmining has brought—not just to my electorate but to all electorates in the region. There is no shortage of appreciation, but many people are looking at air and water quality issues and, of course, at the impact of mining on sustainable industries—viticulture, agriculture more generally and the thoroughbred breeding industry, which is  very important to the region as well as a critical employer. So this community is showing not a change of heart but growing concern about the impact of mining on sustainable industries. Thankfully that concern is now starting to seep through to the state government, and a subcommittee of the state cabinet is looking at these issues. I urge them to focus intensely and to start to restore more balance to the ecology of our local region.

Another factor now is the emerging coal seam methane industry. Again people will listen and will welcome the opportunities for more long-term jobs and more wealth in the region, but we cannot look at short-term benefits without looking at potential long-term harm to sustainable industries. Coalmining has been great; coal seam methane can be great and will be great for some regions. But we cannot grow further an industry that might last 30, 40 or 50 years at the expense of industries that we would like to think are going to sustain the local region for hundreds, if not thousands, of years—if that is not looking out too far. So we must get this balance right.

On state government issues, I simply appeal to the state government to sort out its long-term power contract problems with Hydro Aluminium in my electorate. It is a complex issue I know, but there are jobs and people’s livelihoods at stake here and we cannot sit back and play with them. I am taking Minister Burke to the plant next Wednesday where he will officially open a reprocessing centre, a reuse facility for spent potline waste. I would dearly like that issue to be resolved before I take Minister Burke there to open what is an environmentally friendly project and a great initiative of Hydro Aluminium. It is a great company, a great corporate citizen and a great employer, and we need to get that issue sorted out. If I can play a role—I send this statement to the state government—I would be very happy to do so.

Last but not least, like the member for Fisher and the member for Shortland before him, I would like to thank all those who supported me in my re-election. Not even those of us in the safest seats get more than six out of 10 votes, so none of us are universally popular, but I am very pleased that a sufficient number of people have decided that I have done enough to be returned to this great place. It is a great privilege and specifically I thank all those who directly supported me, my family first of all, but as part of my campaign team there were all those people who worked the polling booths on what was, I think, a fairly difficult Saturday and, of course, they had to enjoy a glass of beer or wine or soft drink late into the night, quite uncertain about the outcome. They are great troopers and we appreciate them very much. We could not get ourselves elected to this place without their help.

I thank all those who have worked cooperatively with me on both sides of the parliament in making the new parliament work. It has been difficult for us all. We have our disagreements and we are always running interference on one another behind the scenes, but overall people have come to the arrangement in the right spirit and it is good to see the parliament working well. (Time expired)

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