The Hunter Valley produces and exports large volumes of coal. Supporters of the industry portray it as a ‘vital economic engine room’ and ‘the bedrock of the Hunter’s economy’. In contrast to coal proponents’ claims, however, economic profiles of the region emphasise that the Hunter has a diversified, modern economy, without any one dominant sector,

The proposed Watermark Coal Project is for the construction of an open-cut mine into agricultural land and native forest, in the Liverpool Plains region, 25km south south-east of the township of Gunnedah and to the immediate west of the village of Breeza, within the Gunnedah Local Government Area. The proposal is for a 30-year open

The Bulga Optimisation Project is a proposal to extend the Bulga open cut coal mine near Singleton, in the Hunter Valley, NSW. The Australia Institute made a submission on the economic assessment done as part of the response to submissions on the original Environmental Impact Statement. The revised assessment by Deloitte Access Economics is a

The Coalpac project is a proposal to expand two coal mines owned by Coalpac, near Lithgow, NSW. In May 2014, The Australia Institute made a submission to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process, focussing on the economic assessment of the project. Key points: The coal price used in the EIS is either inaccurate or assumes

Springvale Colliery is an underground coal mine near Lithgow, NSW. It is owned and operated by Centennial Coal, a subsidiary of Thai energy company, Banpu. The mine is located in environmentally sensitive areas, adjacent to several state forests and near the Gardens of Stone National Park. The Australia Institute made submissions on the Environmental Impact

Angus Place is an underground coal mines near Lithgow, NSW. It is owned and operated by Centennial Coal, a subsidiary of Thai energy company, Banpu. The mine is located in environmentally sensitive areas, adjacent to several state forests and near the Gardens of Stone National Park. The Australia Institute made submissions on the Environmental Impact

The Cobbora proposal is to develop an open cut coal mine near the towns of Gulgong and Dunedoo, east of Dubbo, NSW. The mine would extract up to 20 million tonnes per annum of run of mine coal. The mine is proposed by the NSW government-owned Cobbora Holding Company.  Our submission focuses mainly on the

The proposal is to develop an underground coal mine near Wyong, situated between Newcastle and Sydney, NSW. The mine would extract up to 5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of coal which would require little further processing to reach saleable quality. The mine has attracted controversy due to its potential impacts on the local environment,

This week energy company AGL released a research paper entitled Solving for ‘x’ – the New South Wales Gas Supply Cliff. The paper contains plenty of economic terms and algebra, but these merely serve to provide camouflage for another reiteration of the gas industry’s claims – that NSW is running low on gas and the

The Australia Institute’s submission on the Newcastle T4 project focuses on the economic assessment and highlights a number of flaws in the economic modelling.  The assessment included the use of export growth rates up to 12 times greater than through the mining boom, estimates of coal exports out to 2083, and inflated estimates of coal

The Stratford Extension Project proposes to extend an existing coal mine in the Gloucester Valley, NSW. The Australia Institute made a submission on the economic assessment of the project to the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission in February 2014. Key points: ·       Economic assessment is based on extremely optimistic coal prices of AUD$178

In November 2013 The Australia Institute made a submission on the application to modify the consent conditions of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth mine, near Singleton in the Hunter Valley, NSW. This modification allows the mine to expand into areas that the Land and Environment Court had disallowed, as the economic benefits of doing so did not

For several decades, the alternative commercial and economic uses and management of Australia’s native forests have generated considerable debate. In the past five years, this debate has sharpened as the native forest sector has contracted in response to increased competition in international and domestic wood product markets. New carbon markets are also emerging that could

Australia’s native forest sector has experienced a significant contraction over the past five years. This is reflected in log production from native forests: roundwood removals over the period 2009-2011 were 30 per cent below the average from the previous 18 years. Similarly, woodchip exports, a mainstay of the hardwood sector, fell by 33 per cent

Catalyst Australia welcomes the initiative of the City of Sydney in developing Wellbeing Indicators. We applaud the endeavour, and recognize that the process of developing the Indicators will promote community awareness of factors that contribute to social wellbeing as well as provide information to guide future policy-making by the City of Sydney and potentially the