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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Matthew Kelly

Protesters have minister in their sights at Hunter coal lunch

Madeline King will be at the Hunter Coal Festival lunch in Singleton on Friday. Picture supplied.

Hunter environment groups will protest at a Hunter mining leaders lunch in Singleton Friday, which will be attended by federal resources Minister Madeleine King.

The $124 a seat event is being held as part of the Hunter Coal Festival.

Groups, including Hunter Environment Lobby, Coalfields for Climate Action, Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group, Knitting Nannas, Australian Religious Response to Climate Change and Ecopella will be drawing attention to the industry's ongoing human health and environmental impacts.

The groups are also calling for an end to the fossil fuel industry's influence on government and for an end to new and expanding coal mines in the Hunter.

"Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016, the NSW Government has approved at least 26 new or expanded fossil fuel projects," Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group spokeswoman Wendy Wales said.

"The coal industry in the Hunter Valley continues to expand while making record profits at the expense of the environment, community health, cultural heritage, and social fabric of the region.

"The largest and most recent - Mount Pleasant- would be responsible for nearly 900 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions during its lifespan. Projects such as this wreck any opportunity humanity has to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis."

Hunter Environment Lobby spokeswoman Bev Smiles said fossil fuel-driven climate change was playing a key role in the flooding rains that are devastating Australian communities this year.

"Yet Madeleine King appears tone deaf to the impact of her support for fossil fuels on increasing numbers of Australians. She thinks it's OK to come here and chat over lunch with King Coal. Every single person whose life has been upended by extreme, climate-fuelled weather events has the right to be outraged," she said.

"The multinational coal industry has too much influence over the Albanese and Perrottet governments. Madeleine King lunching with the mining lobby shows just how cosy their relationship is."

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