John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with no pleasure that I rise to inform the parliament of a very recent announcement in Cobar, the major mining town in the electorate of Calare. CBH has just announced that 220 jobs will be lost. The mine is not closing—it will continue on—but the situation is that falling commodity prices have dropped off. The company is talking about the fact that a lot of these people are employed by contractors doing exploration work. There is absolutely no doubt that the drop-off in commodity prices for copper and the like has an impact, but I think the bigger issue is the rising fuel market, the rising price of diesel and the fact that water is such a huge issue. The current government did promise $12 million to help alleviate the water situation at Nyngan and Cobar. We have yet to see that foreshadowed in the budget, so that is a real issue. While obviously the shortage of water is not this government’s fault, certainly they have to work with and spark the state government of New South Wales into dealing with the issues, and especially their own commitment to alleviate the water issue for Cobar and Nyngan.

Of those 220 people who were mostly employed by contractors, the vast majority are locals in Cobar. Cobar is a tough town, it is a good town, it is a young town, and I have no doubt it will survive this. But the loss of 220 jobs in Cobar has a far bigger effect on the town than the loss of Mitsubishi will have in Adelaide, much as I have sympathy for those people. But if the government can put $35 million towards a company that did not ask for it—Toyota, to build a new car—then I think they can also look at what a town like Cobar has to deal with when it loses 40 per cent of its workforce out of one mine.

As I have said, this is a tough town. It has a tough council. Ordinarily, as I said, I think a great many of those people would be employed by the other two mines, who are also big employers. We have well over 1,200 people working on the mines there. But, as I said, rising fuel prices are a huge issue for mines, particularly mines that are out in the western areas. With the water situation and the drop in commodities, the people cannot all be employed within the town. Remember, as I said, the vast majority these people are locals doing a local job. (Time expired)