The public exhibition of the state government’s controversial policy to balance agricultural and mining interests over land has been extended till Monday 14 May.
NSW planning minister Brad Hazzard said submissions can be lodged up till then at www.nsw.gov.au/haveyoursay.
The plan has drawn flak from both mining and farming lobbies and, at a recent protest against it in Sydney, farmers said they were betrayed by the plan giving mining supremacy over farming and agricultural land not protected as promised before the election.
But the NSW Minerals Council claims the draft policy would cause NSW to lose $1 billion a year in mining royalties for the next two decades, resulting in 8,000 lost jobs, mostly in the coal-rich Upper Hunter region.
NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson said the report showed the government’s failure to provide certainty for both agriculture and mining.
She added the government needed to stop presenting mining as a ‘binary choice’ between coal-seam gas extraction and agriculture.
‘It is not a decision between the two; it is about striking a balance and delivering certainty for the future of rural businesses and communities,’ Ms Simson said.
