Minister for Agriculture and Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has spoken publicly against the mine approved by his government. Here’s what he had to say yesterday:
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“I’ve never supported the Shenhua mine. I think it is ridiculous that you would have a major mine in the midst of Australia’s best agricultural land.
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“I’ve done everything in my power to try and stop the mine. We brought about further investigations; we had an independent expert scientific review.
“I feel this approval is unfortunate, but at the very least it gives the Minister for the Environment the condition that if any of the modelling does not turn out to be factual he has the capacity to stop it at that point.
“The fault of this goes right back to who gave the exploration licences and why, and was further exacerbated by those who deemed it proper that it should proceed and continued on with the process.
“Our involvement federally was part of step 15 of 17 steps. There are still two further steps at the state level to go through.
“I’ve said publicly and privately I don’t support this mine. I still don’t support this mine and that will remain forever-more my view.
“I think the world has gone mad when apparently you cannot build a house at Moore Creek because of White Box grassy woodlands but you can build a super mine in the middle of the Breeza plains.”
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