Craig Thomson (Dobell, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the proposed coalmine in my electorate. Deputy Speaker Scott, you will know that I asked a question today of the Prime Minister in relation to this coalmine. It is the third question I have asked in the last month about it. I need to get on the record right at the start that I am actually not anti coalmines. We have coalmines all around the Central Coast, up the Hunter and so forth. But this particular coalmine is right under the water catchment area for the whole of the Central Coast. Over 50 per cent of the water from the Central Coast will be affected by this coalmine.

This is a matter that I have been fighting since before I came to this place. Quite frankly, I thought it would have been resolved many years ago. Eventually, we got the previous state Labor government—and we have seen of recent times that they tend to have an attraction for mining, mining owners and entrepreneurs—in the months before the last state election to say, 'This coalmine is not in the public interest and won't go ahead.'

That was half the story, because everyone knew that the opposition—what became the O'Farrell government—was going to win the election. Very importantly, we got the incoming Premier to also commit not just verbally but in writing that he would protect the valleys of Wyong shire, our water catchment areas, from mining. Before the election he said, 'This is what we're going to do.' After the election, suddenly, we have another application, identical to the previous one, to mine this precious area.

We are more aware than most areas of what water shortage can do. We got down to about 10 per cent of our water supply only a few years ago. Even though we have had years of rain, our dams are still only just over the 50 per cent mark. So water is very precious on the Central Coast. It is unbelievable that we are able to have governments and oppositions saying that they are going to do something about protecting our water supply, playing the political game when it is around the election, yet, when it actually comes to protecting it, doing absolutely nothing.

I can tell you this: this is what the public hate most about politicians. They hate that politicians make promises, and say, 'Vote for me and we will fix this problem,' and, as soon as they get into government, what do they do? Nothing. The water supply of the Central Coast is too important to allow the major parties at this next federal election to play politics with it again. I fully expect both the Labor candidate—when Labor gets a candidate—and the Liberal candidate to be out there saying: 'We're going to save the water; we'll do something about this,' because that is what happens.

But if they really want to do something about supporting the Central Coast's water supply, they need to support my private member's bill now, before the election. We have had this issue going on for too long. People of the Central Coast need some certainty about their water supply and, for that reason, I have written both to the Prime Minister and the opposition leader, saying, 'We might only have 2½ or three weeks to go'—when I wrote; now it is two weeks—'but this is the most important issue for people on the Central Coast.' Quite frankly, you could understand why: the water supply of a community, the fact it could run out, is the most important issue that anyone can face.

The simple figures in relation to our water supply are this: if this coalmine goes ahead, the coalmine proponents are saying that we will lose 79 million litres of water a day. That is more than the average rainfall for the whole Central Coast. So we are going to lose that every day while this mining goes ahead. The aquifers that feed the water supply are going to be irreparably damaged. Our water supply is going to be under threat, and experts say it will take more than 200 years to fix. More than 245 homes are going to be affected by major subsidence. The roads in the valleys are going to suffer subsidence up to 1.75 metres. And, most shockingly, the coalmine owners themselves say people will die from this coalmine because of coal dust.

This is something where neither the government nor the opposition can stand up and say, 'We are looking after the people of the Central Coast,' if they do not stand up and support my private member's bill in the next two sitting weeks to make sure that this coalmine that will irreparably damage the lifestyle, the lives and the water supply of the Central Coast goes ahead.