From the Newcastle Morning Herald, 26/3/2002

Tomalpin, promise of boom or doom?

By James Ryan, spokesman for "The Friends of Tumblebee"

"Now that the Minister for Planning has approved the Tomalpin Industrial Estate we can evaluate which side of this very public debate has been closer to the mark.

On one hand we have the Minister claiming that 10,000 jobs will be created, up to $2billion in investment attracted, and 2000 hectares of important vegetation protected.

You don't have to be a genius to work out that the potential for Tomalpin to have an impact on the development of the Hunter Valley is much greater than the Austeel proposal.

Local member, Kerry Hickey is on the record saying this new zone will give the Hunter an opportunity to develop its economic potential, and provide job opportunities for thousands of workers who currently travel outside the region for work.

If the above is true, we are living in fortunate times.

If it is true, this decision by the Minister will be seen as farsighted and the efforts of Cessnock Council to doggedly pursue the plan as visionary. The Labour Party will be able to claim credit for tackling a big picture issue.

If, however, this vision is not true, the Minister will not be able to escape looking extremely foolish.

He has been well infomed that the entire site is environmentally sensitive and has been nominated as an Endangered Ecological Community.

If the Minister does end up looking foolish, we can deliberate if this was so because of a) misinterpreted facts or b) the Cessnock ALP tail wagged the Minister's dog.

Members of the local community have consistently asked the question, where will the industry come from?

Weren't we promised 2000 jobs by the Year 2000 at Steel River?

Tomalpin is 8 times the size of Steel River.

The one industry that is supposedly interested in the site almost certainly has little idea of the environmental constraints that will apply.

How could they, when the stringent management plans have not yet been formulated and National Parks have still to conduct surveys on site?

Why, after much public citicism, can no feasible plan be demonstrated to service the Tomalpin site with water/waste water?

Hasn't the State Government learned a lesson from the Bushells Ridge fiasco in Wyong Shire where about 10 years ago some 400 hectares of land was rezoned for employment-generating industry?

That land is still sitting vacant today because it is too expensive to service and too environmentally sensitive.

Industry has stayed away from Steel River and Bushells Ridge, but industry has chosen the Bayswater buffer zone.

What will happen at Tomalpin?

Regardless of whether you think Tomalpin is visionarry in a job creation sense or not, there can be little doubt that the troika of ALP (Cessnock Council, local MP and the Minister for Planning) decision makers have failed to understand the environmental enormity of what they have done.

Tomalpin is the biggest block of bushland left on the valley floor and is a wonderful reservoir of threatened species.

Two in particular, the nationally listed Swift Parrot and the Regent Honeyeater are not assurred of survival. The Tomalpin Estate will directly reduce their habitat.

Developers may well have their every move challenged in the Land and Environment Court.

These types of issues will not make this site attractive to industrial developers and will not give them the cetainty and flexibility they requirre to run a successful business.

The Friends of Tumblebee are most disappointed the minister chose not to investigate four degraded alternative sites for large-scale industry we have identified in the Lower Hunter.

If industy is unable or unwilling to establish at Tomalpin then not only will Tomalpin not be visionary, it will be a miscalculation of the sort that will cost the Hunter Valley job opportunities.

The issue that residents and all those who love the bush have found the most galling in this exercise has been the attempt to claim it is a good result for the environment, to greenwash.

It is unbelievably cheeky to claim 2000 hectares have been put aside for conservation when 870 of those hectares are already zoned National Park.

A further 870 hectares of the 2000 hectares is the impressively named Environment Protection Zone (which also doubles as the buffer zone) which in reality is able to be subdivided and sold for rural properties with associated housing, clearing and fencing and so on.

It is said that a thick hide is a good quality for a politician

Far sighted - or just plain silly? I think it's a case of the emperor's new clothes.

James Ryan is a spokesman for "The Friends of Tumblebee"