The NSW government has announced it will not allow an open-cut mine in the state's upper Hunter Valley to go ahead, deciding instead to protect the local thoroughbred industry.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally announced the government will block the Bickham Coal Project, which would have extracted coal for the next 25 years.

Ms Keneally said she believed it was the first time the NSW government had ever rejected a coalmine application.

The mine near Scone has been stopped due to risks of water contamination in the Pages River and the threat it poses to the region's multibillion-dollar thoroughbred industry, Ms Keneally said.

"This decision gives the state's thoroughbred industry the increased certainty it needs to continue to harness the dynamic global market - of which it is a leader," she said in a statement.

It is a rare race meeting where almost everyone feels like a winner. But the champagne flowed freely yesterday at the Hunter Valley town of Scone, as the thoroughbred racing community savoured victory in one of Australia's most extraordinary environmental campaigns.

The NSW government blocked an open-cut coalmine for the first time, shelving a proposal for a $3.6 billion project that would have threatened the water supply of dozens of horse studs and vineyards, as well as thousands of acres of arable land.

The campaign against the mine united influential public figures in opposition, with unlikely alliances between the former prime minister Bob Hawke and former governor-general Mike Jeffery and broadcasters Alan Jones and Phillip Adams.

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Gus: I will be also very happy should the same fellows help ban the dump of nuclear waste in the Northern Territory...

from the Daily Telegraph

IT was the caucus meeting that at least some Government MPs say shows Premier Kristina Keneally and her team are "delusional" and living in "fantasy land".

The Premier strode in to front her caucus immaculately styled, in a grey suit, on level 12 of Parliament and told her MPs that, despite the Penrith by-election result, she led a good administration.

It was just that the message of all the good work the Government was doing wasn't getting through, she said, according to caucus sources.

Ms Keneally gave a speech in caucus yesterday lasting more than 10 minutes in which she pointed to the good work that was done with the state's literacy and numeracy results, hospital emergency department waiting times and the Government's Metropolitan Transport Plan.

She acknowledged the Government had to be careful with "integrity issues" - an apparent reference to former Penrith MP Karyn Paluzzano.

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Gus: it is obvious that the media has had enough of Labor in the State of New South Wales. Would Labor have the best Premier, the best team with the best political and social agenda, the media — and especially the Daily Terror, as some people refer to the Telegraph — will poopoo anything Labor would be doing and the media would promote the B team — what am I saying the F team of Barry O'Farrell — to take over the stick. The State issues are very "complicated" to use an Obamic word. Public transport is wonky to say the least but there has been some marked improvements despite what most scribes would say. The scribes expect 100 per cent efficiency... If there is one old lady who did not have time to climb on a bus as she was not there on time, the media gets plastered with "granny left behind" headlines and the story is covered over ten columns blaming Labor for it.

The State finances go into the black and immediately the media cries foul that the figures must be crook. They are not...

There are problems with traffic, sure. Sydney is a city built around goat tracks on hills and valleys cut by numerous bays. Unless one bulldozes highways through its great old suburbs to allow for more traffic to come and jam into the city, the traffic won't improve ... and would not improve anyway. Those higways would become jamlocked too. But some developers and croncrete merchants would make a packet on the demolition and the rebuilding!... Not to mention the asphalt people! Some people go to live 50 kms from the centre and expect to be working (loafing) in their office 10 minutes after having left their cosy oversized McMansion on an estate of oversized McMansions...

The Hospital system has improved under Labor from what it was under the Libs... But a couple of problems become the scribes' fodder for months...

I can tell you here with knowledge and certitude: Keneally is far better than O'Farrell, on all fronts... But the media wants blood... see toon at top...

A good article Gus, but I think that the stigma of the previous NSW factions has destabilized the foundation on which the original Labor policies were established as the first Australian political party and should have been honored.

I am not ashamed to say that my Wife and I resigned from the NSW Labor party because their actions with the preferential treatment of "some people” accusing “some people” of behavior that could affect their livelihood and their family and, their future.

The disgrace was that the accusations against this person, who I know personally and believe to be trustworthy, were made in the most un-Australian and underhanded way of that terrible anti-justice word, anonymity.

This accusation, without proof but used as a political advantage, caused the accused and his family to go through an embarrassing and expensive taxpayer inquiry into this person’s behavior.  Justice?

The result was that this person was exonerated but the damage to his family and his health was done - including him being hospitalized twice.

As I argued repeatedly to the NSW Labor Party, where is the justice when you cannot face your accuser?  Is that what Labor stands for?

If the person or persons who I personally hold responsible for this travesty of justice consider that their dishonestly has at least deeply hurt the family that they have targeted, and then I “weep for my country”.

The NSW state labor party has betrayed the principles for which I have always supported.  As members, my Wife and I asked for freedom of information from the party we supported but, the same party, who allowed that travesty of justice, protected the anonymous and serious accusations of somebody who may or not may have been fair dinkum.

That is not a party that I can support.  I support my friend who was proven innocent after a long period of ANONYMOUS accusations.

God Bless Australia and may the real NSW Labor members overcome the factions of a dysfunctional multi-national opportunist group whose object is to capitalize on the need of the average Australian.  NE OUBLIE.

Yes Ernest...

A couple of bad apple have spoilt the Labor fruit bowl (actually, a few more than a couple... but there are two big ones though to get rid off). I know that Keneally is aware of this and will do whatever she can to steer clear — and remove the bad boys. But her base is not strong enough within the party or within her own ranks to do a Putin style coup... She still has time to work at cleaning up the party, but leaks from within, designed to undermine her efforts, end up in the Terrorgraph as an image of her like an alien Teletubby... She is more honest than most politicians, she is smarter than most politicians, she is "street-wise" but she can't do it on her own. She is fighting a hostile media and elements of her own party. Strangely, despite all their antics and mediatic alliance (Barry O'Farrell "calls to arms" supported by the SMH a few month ago) the Libs are the least of her worries — although they will win the next election in this State, apart from a miracle.

I wish I could see her regain the top bunk and address all the issues that you have raised and all the others that have been simmering, Ernest: more transparency, more people power at the bases. I know she can do it but the media won't give her Labor label the time of day... May be we're due for a huge clean up... But believe me, the Libs and their Christian factions, will embed with developers with a vengeance... Bad Apples? we ain't seen nofin' yet...

Hunter Valley villages once slated for redevelopment will be given the state's highest level of heritage protection, the NSW government says.

The Catherine Hill Bay and Middle Camp mining villages will be listed in a new cultural precinct on the State Heritage Register, in only the second listing of entire towns for protection under the scheme.

Today's announcement is a massive turnaround from two years ago, when the former planning minister Frank Sartor approved plans to redevelop the towns, south of Newcastle.

The proposal, which would have seen almost 800 new homes built on the site, led to complaints that the coastal spot was being overdeveloped.

A sustained campaign from angry residents last year saw the decision blocked in the Land and Environment Court.

Planning Minister Tony Kelly says the Heritage Council is now seeking public comment on the government's proposal, which would protect 126 homes in Catherine Hill Bay and Middle Camp.

see toon at top...

The controversial Tillegra Dam proposed for the Hunter Valley has been scrapped by the state government, which has now backed down completely after spending the last four years arguing the case for the $477 million project.

The Premier, Kristina Keneally, said this morning that no further plans for a dam in the Hunter would be considered, after receiving an assessment of the proposal from the Department of Planning.

The risk to internationally-significant wetlands near Newcastle and the potential impacts on other water users in the area meant there was insufficient cause to build the dam, the department said.

This means that people who had sold their farms in the Williams Valley - the proposed site of the Sydney Harbour-sized dam - will now be given the option of buying their land back, while people who had already been charged levees on their water bills to pay for construction will get refunds.

Opponents of the dam cheered this morning as Premier Keneally made the announcement in Newcastle.

‘‘What this planning assessment found was that this dam was not the appropriate way to sort it,’’ Ms Keneally said.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-govt-scraps-hunter-dam-20101128-18byz.html

see toon at top...