Port of Newcastle

Why was that appropriate?

Well, first of all, we had a delegation from the Fukuoka Prefecture, which is the fastest growing prefecture in Japan, and they were very interested in clean energy at the Port of Newcastle and the Hunter.

So we had the governor, we had a whole range of senior Legislative Assembly members from Fukuoka, plus we had about 1.1 trillion dollars worth of companies that joined us so we're talking toyota motor toyota's part supply chain which is very uh heavily invested in fukuoka plus nippon steel so you know basically if you think about it i think the record says there were 51 people that attended the dinner we're talking 120 bucks a head at a five-star restaurant three courses and booze all in so It wasn't exactly what you would call, I think, excessive because what you need to understand is when you're doing business with these countries, alcohol is part of the conversation.

Now, the Japanese have a word, nomu, which stands for drinking, and they fuse that word with communication and they call it nomunication, which basically means they do business development over beer and wine.

But you see, what Australia and New South Wales in particular can offer in this space... is some of the highest grade most efficient black coal in the world and not only is our finished product an ideal substitute for those burning inferior grade coals from indonesia and elsewhere but the mines from which it's extracted out here operate to some of the most stringent environmental standards in the world they pay some of the best coal related wages in the world and they're monitored by some of the most comprehensive license regulations anywhere In other words, instead of adding additional burdens on Hunter Valley or South Coast coal mines, I think we'd be wise to let them extract and then market that product on the world stage as the equivalent of the Wagyu of thermal coal.

I mean, we should be proudly telling countries that if they want to improve the efficiency of their coal-fired power stations, they should ditch their current provider and place an order at the Port of Newcastle.

Or put it another way, by all means, continue the transition to the grid of whatever Chinese-made renewable bit of kit you want, but during the transition period, consider our black coal and upgrade the output of your power stations in the process.

Now, could we call this the green case for Australian coal? I don't know.

And while all of this is happening at the mines, have a look at what's going on where the coal leaves Australia.

The Port of Newcastle.

Rising Tide is planning another mass blockade at the coal port.

Kayaks and boats will be in the shipping channel trying to stop the coal ships from getting out.

So the Hunter coal industry is being squeezed at both ends.

At the mine gate, approvals are being challenged over emissions created overseas.

At the Port of Newcastle, activists are preparing to physically block the ships carrying the coal.

Sitting in the middle, the New South Wales Government.

And effectively, that's just not what might happen domestically or as a result of a business doing something, but what happens when their products are utilized even in external markets.

So from a coal mining point of view, okay, you dig the coal up in the Hunter Valley, you put it on a ship at the Port of Newcastle, you send it to South Korea.

It's burnt over there.

Well, that's scope three, and that's got to be considered in any approval, according to the High Court, granted for a domestic decision, mine, infrastructure, whatever it happens to be.

Well, what are scope three emissions, you ask? Well, put simply, and this is in a very rudimentary and basic sense, scope three emissions are different to scope one and scope two in the sense that they are the emissions that can be collected or realized once a product is exported and then manipulated or used overseas.

To give you an example, Hunter Valley dig up coal, probably the highest quality coal in the world, most efficient.

You put it on a ship at the Port of Newcastle, you sail it to South Korea, and they burn it on the outskirts of Seoul.

Well, the CO2 footprint from that burning on the outskirts of Seoul are scope three emissions.

Hunter Valley dig up coal, probably the highest quality coal in the world, most efficient.

You put it on a ship at the Port of Newcastle, you sail it to South Korea, and they burn it on the outskirts of Seoul.

Well, the CO2 footprint from that burning on the outskirts of Seoul are Scope 3 emissions.

And what the High Court, I think, effectively has found today is that that has to be considered under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act of 1979 in Australia.