Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Michael Parris

King Coal dethroned as focus of campaign in Upper Hunter

Dave Layzell, centre, after announcing $102 million for a new Scone hospital. Picture supplied

It is perhaps a measure of how much the climate wars have calmed in recent times that coal is no longer the word on the lips of the main combatants in Upper Hunter.

On April 8, 2021, Nationals candidate Dave Layzell stood beside then treasurer Dominic Perrottet and John Barilaro at Glencore's Ravensworth mine to spruik the Coalition's coal credentials in the lead-up to the May by-election.

Five days later, mining union official and Labor candidate Jeff Drayton joined Jodi McKay in Singleton to announce that the party would guarantee $100 million in mining royalties returned to the community every year.

Labor's woeful performance in the by-election appeared to validate federal MP Joel Fitzgibbon's widely shared view that the party had lost its base while pandering too much to inner-city craft beer drinkers.

Fast forward two years, and with Labor now calling the shots in Canberra, the steam has gone out of the coal jobs "debate".

Layzell, now defending his patch as Member for Upper Hunter, and Labor candidate Peree Watson both agreed with Election Diary that grassroots issues like roads and hospitals were dominating this year's campaign.

Dave Layzell and John Barilaro at a campaign event leading up to the 2021 Upper Hunter by-election.

"I would always see that job security is massively important in Upper Hunter, but we're all working together to get there now," Watson said.

"There's a realisation within the community that we can do both."

Layzell said the coal talk had cooled down.

"I think the by-election brought a whole lot of focus from the state onto the coalmines and where they sat in the government's vision, and I think a lot of people now understand where we're going with it," he said.

New growth industry

The Legalise Cannabis Party is launching its election campaign in Newcastle on Monday with the intoxicating suggestion that the Hunter could become a centre for commercial weed growing.

LCP upper house lead candidate Jeremy Buckingham told ED the party's vote in last year's federal election had been particularly strong in the Hunter.

Asked why this was so, Buckingham said: "Cannabis is a working-class drug.

"It's a working-class recreation.

"People in the Hunter recognise that it's just part of society, part of life, and the war on drugs hasn't worked."

The former Greens MP said the region would be the "absolute ideal place" to establish a marijuana industry if NSW legalised the drug.

"The Hunter, with access to good water, cheaper land, a workforce, relatively close to markets, would be the perfect place to establish a legalised cannabis industry," Buckingham said.

Women and the west

Returning to one of ED's favourite subjects, the prospective State Government of Western Sydney has been relative quiet this week in handing out wads of cash in the west metropolis.

But one event which caught our eye was the government-backed Future of Women in Western Sydney Summit at Parramatta's CommBank Stadium on International Women's Day.

ED looks forward to the government-sponsored Future of Women in the Hunter Summit.

To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.