Editorial: A turd in the swimming pool The decision of the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission, to approve the biggest coalmine ever to come before it, is based on a simple falsehood: that the 809 million tonnes of greenhouse gases the mine will release are not a problem because they will be released mostly when the coal is burnt overseas. The logic of this is like defecating in one end of a swimming pool and insisting it is fine to drink from the other. It pretends as if the planet is not one large and interdependent whole, connected by people and oceans that will all suffer the impacts of this crass indifference. It pretends as if Glencore and Yancoal aren’t asking the government to forgive them their greasy turd. The commission’s decision is explained in a 76-page statement of reasons. It is hardly the commission’s fault: it is assessing the mine against legislation that was drafted to ignore its true impact. That legislation is the result of decades of policy built around the sooty votes of places like the Hunter. The science doesn’t matter because the opportunists are in charge. Labor is as guilty of this as the Coalition. There is nothing between them. The approval was met with dumb jubilation by the Minns Labor government. The commission accepts that there will be significant emissions from the HVO North and South Open Cut Coal Continuation Projects – a mine with a name like a bloodborne disease, based near Singleton in NSW, which will now export coal until 2045. It acknowledges the environmental impacts but is more concerned with the dishonest benefits of economic activity. “The Commission finds that the residual impacts of the Project are, on balance, outweighed by its benefits to the Hunter region and NSW, including continued employment, economic activity, support for local business, ongoing royalties and taxation revenue,” the approval says. “The continued operation of the HVO complex would provide economic stability for the Hunter region and support a more orderly transition for workers, businesses and communities as the coal industry changes over time.” In 2007, a ship called the Pasha Bulker ran aground on a beach in Newcastle. It was waiting to load coal from mines around the one approved this week. The huge red carrier drove itself into the sand and was stuck there for almost a month. Tourists visited to take photographs. Scores of similar red ships waited on the horizon, queuing for more coal. The stranded ship gave a Lilliputian quality to Newcastle, to Australia. It seemed to represent the destruction to be brought by climate change and the smallness of the politics that would enable it. It was a warning tossed onto the sand. Eventually it was pulled back out to sea, like countless tonnes of coal since. The next step for the Glencore and Yancoal mine is federal sign-off. The minister could intervene. He has the discretion to act in the interest of humanity. It’s unlikely that he will, however. Hunter is a marginal seat, held by an Olympic sport shooter the size of Gulliver. The electorate is among those Labor is most likely to lose to One Nation. What is the future of the planet when a couple of votes are at stake? thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comm…