Ex-minister Lobbies To Stop Mines

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday May 29, 2007

By CATHARINE MUNRO SMH

THE former planning minister Craig Knowles has been lobbying the State Government on behalf of Australia's biggest racehorse breeder to stop coalmining "taking over" the Hunter Valley.

Employed by the Ingham family, Mr Knowles has met with planning officials, who, until August 2005, called him their boss.

Now a consultant with the boutique investment bank Investec, Mr Knowles met the Department of Planning's director-general, Sam Haddad, earlier this year.

The Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, is considering a proposal to dig an open-cut coalmine at Anvil Hill, a few kilometres from the Inghams' Woodlands Stud near Muswellbrook.

Major players in the Hunter Valley stud industry are campaigning to stop the spread of coalmines to the Upper Hunter, where their $1.6 billion industry has traditionally been based.

Despite concern that those holding licences to take water from the Hunter Valley may have their allocations cut to zero in the coming months, Mr Sartor has said water shortages were not central to his deliberations on Anvil Hill.

A department spokesman said Mr Knowles had not "opened doors" for representatives from the horse stud industry. SMH

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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