I WISH to express my extreme displeasure and disappointment at the draft conditions of consent for the expansion of Yancoal’s Stratford coal mine as presented in council’s December business paper. However, I will say that I am not surprised.
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After meeting with Department of Coal Seam Gas representatives and hearing their statements that they believed that there were no legitimate health or other concerns to be had with the extractive industry, it does not surprise me that the ministerial staff chose to ignore this council and the people of Gloucester with our legitimate concerns.
It became clearer to me when one of them stated that he had worked for the mining industry in Queensland.
The facts are that they are still working for the mining industry, only it is our taxes that are paying their wages.
Rest assured, I do not blame the mining companies, to them it is business, they promise the government of the day bribes in the name of royalties and the government makes it happen.
It is as simple as that. To them our ratepayers are just cannon fodder who must suffer for the greater good of all.
I do not believe that the last government is any better than the present one.
This State government just has not been in power long enough to become as useless and incompetent as the last one. But give them time.
So as I see it, the common denominator is the departmental staff that work for the politicians.
Governments come and go, ministers come and go, but the bureaucrats stay in their jobs forever. And it is them who influence.
Watch a few episodes of ‘Yes Minister’ and you will understand what I mean.
The conditions of consent are an insult to everyone who worked on them and everyone we represent.
They have not only ignored our concerns but have pandered to their masters and actually made the conditions weaker than they were before.
To have this mine in our shire will actually cost each and every ratepayer in the degrading of our roads and bridges without just compensation; homes near the mine will lose value without just compensation; there will be increased noise, dust, and disturbance on the health of our community without just compensation. I was raised in the Victorian city of Ballarat, the city that gave birth to the Eureka Stockade.
The Eureka Stockade was a protest against unfair and oppressive behaviour by the government of the day and ironically it was the government against miners.
They seem to have reconciled their differences. Now the government and the miners have joined forces to exploit the farmers and citizens of this country.
I would like to quote Mark Twain who visited the Victorian goldfields in 1895. Following his visit, he said of the Eureka Stockade:
“By and by there was a result, and I think it may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution - small in size; but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression ... it is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honourable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it. They keep green the memory of the men who fell at the Eureka stockade.”
And another by Peter Lalor the leader of the rebellion who said:
“We have the ability to create the future. Will we create it in the image of nature or the image of the devil? We are only David’s fighting goliaths. But in this fight we should never tire. We must fight till victory or to death. Soon the day may come when we are forced to take matters into our own hands. But fear not. We know that for everyone of us that are silenced another will stand up to take their place to fight for the glory of nature.”
We have crossed the Rubicon, there is no going back now, and we must use all within our legal power to insist that the citizens of Gloucester get a fair deal from the forced imposition of mining in our shire.
