Major parties vote against protection for Central Coast drinking water

Today the NSW Legislative Council voted down the Greens’ Central Coast Drinking Water Catchments Protection Bill 2019.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi will join Abigail Boyd MLC on the Central Coast tomorrow to meet with residents.

Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW spokesperson for the Hunter, Newcastle and Central Coast, said:

“It is disappointing that the major parties continue to put the short term profits of the coal industry ahead of the long term interests of the community.

“No project is worth risking the drinking water of 350,000 people.

“We can protect the environment and provide thousands of good jobs by investing more in renewable energy and manufacturing on the Central Coast,” said Ms Boyd.

Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, said:

“The world is changing and the writing is on the wall for coal. In response to the climate crisis, we are seeing the coal industry close down in places like Germany while our traditional export markets are pledging to cancel coal power stations. The Central Coast needs real and sustainable jobs, not empty promises that will damage the environment and threaten crucial water supplies.

“We know the Coalition are climate criminals who are refusing to take any action to protect the Central Coast community and its water.

“Labor has voted against the Greens motion condemning the Wallarah 2 mine in the Senate. It’s time they made it clear to the community where they stand on this environmental ticking time bomb.

“We need the Federal Government to protect the water of Central Coast communities and cancel all environmental approvals,” said Dr Faruqi.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Major parties vote against protection for Central Coast drinking water

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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