Luke Foley arrived in Scone last night with a strong message for the region's thoroughbred breeders - a Labor state government led by him would introduce buffer zones.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The NSW Opposition leader and his deputy and Showdow Minister for Racing Michael Daley were guests of the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association (HBTA) at their annual awards night.
Mr Foley took the opportunity to repeat what he has been saying for 12 months that the equine industry of the Upper Hunter is vitally important for the local, state and national economy and needs protection.
He has argued the industry needed certainty and clear planning regulations that protect their operations.
His words were well received by those in attendance as the HTBA has been calling on the State Government, for a number of years, to provide clear planning guidelines and include buffer zones between horse enterprises and coal mines.
Last week’s announcement that the new owners of the Drayton South tenement Malabar Coal are expected to seek planning approval for an underground mine on the site has caused alarm, not only from the site’s neighbours Coolmore and Godolphin studs, but also from the entire thoroughbred industry.
As horse stud owners face the prospect of yet another planning inquiry into the Drayton South proposal, Mr Foley said the industry needed certainty.
The thoroughbred industry has been forced to fight for its survival on a number of occasions seeing off repeated applications for the same project.
The Planning Assessment Commission has rejected proposals to develop the mine on four occasions.
Mr Foley said he would deliver certainty to the industry by imposing a minimum distance between them and mining.
He also encouraged Planning Minister Anthony Roberts to amend the existing State Environmental Planning Policy to ensure no further applications are made for the Drayton South project.
“Our thoroughbred industry is world’s best practice. It produces champion race horses as good as any in the world. The mighty mare Winx, rated the world’s best turf racehorse in the international rankings, was bred, born and raised in the Hunter Valley,” he has previously stated.
While the coal industry will continue to be an important employer and contributor to NSW’s economic prosperity the Hunter Region’s economy must continue to diversify through the growth of the tourism, winemaking and horse-breeding industries.
The Hunter’s thoroughbred industry employs 4,800 people.
, President of the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association said
"The HTBA has been advocating for certainty and protection for many years now. We applaud the Opposition Leader's commitment and call on the NSW Government to act immediately to place a State Environment Planning Policy on the Drayton South site to prohibit future mining and impose minimum buffers between thoroughbred breeding and mining so that both industries can invest with confidence,"said Cameron Collins, President of the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
Local member for Upper Hunter Michael Johnsen said earlier in the week when commenting on the future of the Drayton South site that underground extraction methods posed far less problems for the horse studs than the development of an open cut mine.
“The main arguments presented by the equine industry in their submissions against Drayton South have been their concerns with blasting, dust, noise and visual impacts,” he said.
“Theses issues are significantly reduced or removed with underground mining.”
Mr Johnsen strongly believes the two industries can live and work together and rejects the need for arbitrary buffers zones .