The Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association (HTBA) agrees with the need outlined in the draft Hunter Regional Plan to “support the ongoing success of the Hunter’s priority agricultural industries” including equine and wine.
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The HTBA welcomes the NSW Government’s acknowledgement that it is time for the Hunter Valley to transition and diversify into a more resilient economic future.
NSW Minister for Planning Rob Stokes was in the Hunter yesterday to release the first ever draft Hunter regional plan.
According to the plan the government recognizes the importance of mining, viticulture, the thoroughbred industry, tourism and oysters to be the economic drivers for our region now and into the future.
The plan also wants to protect our water sources and the environment – making it sound like a ‘motherhood statement’ offering something for everyone.
It goes onto to state that under the plan a uniform methodology for identifying and mapping land important for agriculture within the region and planning for the future needs of industries by identifying land and infrastructure requirements.
Mapping these areas has been the subject of much consternation by viticulturists and the thoroughbred breeders, who have been calling for exclusion zones to protect their operations from open cut mining.
Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the draft Hunter Regional Plan was the NSW Government’s vision for the region, which is Australia’s largest regional economy, over the next two decades.
“The Hunter’s economy is already bigger than the economies of Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the ACT,” Mr Stokes said.
“This draft plan, the first of its type ever created for the Hunter region, will help produce more jobs and cement the Hunter’s position as a driving force in the nation’s economy.”
The Draft Hunter Regional Plan acknowledges the historic, iconic and economic importance of NSW’s equine and wine industries and the need to protect and foster their growth – along with the significant opportunities for tourism.
It also recognises the role effective land use planning can have on maintaining and growing these industries, protecting their lands and water, and addressing land use conflicts.
“However the 2012 Strategic Regional Land Use Plan for the Upper Hunter was intended to do the same, and the Government failed to follow through on it,” said Mr Paddy Power, HTBA treasurer and chairman of the HTBA Protect Our Industries Committee.
“At this stage we are more concerned with actions than words,” Mr Power said
“The imminent Planning Assessment Commission report, on what experts advise is an uneconomic Drayton South proposal, is pivotal to the future of our industry.
"Without our two largest players, Coolmore and Darley, our industry will fragment and, despite all the policy visions and intentions, we will have no industry to protect.”
Over 80 per cent of people in NSW agree that this proposed mine, located just 900 metres away, is far too close to the stud farms - where people live, work and raise their families.
“The Draft Hunter Regional Plan is a very high level document, and the devil is always in the detail. We will again work with the Government, as we have done in the past, to help develop and guide strategic land use planning. However this effort and the previous five years’ efforts will be fruitless if our industry is destroyed by one mine in the wrong place.”
“Visions need actions. The NSW Government has more than enough evidence on the need to act now if we are to preserve, support and foster the future growth of the Upper Hunter equine, wine and tourism industries.”
