IN the week that independent MP Tony Windsor became an outspoken opponent of coal-seam gas extraction, he faced another environmentally damaging threat in his own backyard.
The NSW government last week approved the expansion of an open-cut coalmine that will intrude on the Windsor family farmland.
Whitehaven Coal was given approval to expand its Werris Creek Mine, increasing the life of the mine by up to 20 years and ramping up the rate of mining by 25 per cent, or 500,000 tonnes a year.
Mr Windsor sold his adjacent family farm, Cintra, to Whitehaven in February last year for $4.625 million and now leases it back from the miner.
While seemingly content to allow his land to be torn up for coal, Mr Windsor has seized on coal-seam gas as an environmental evil which could also save his political skin.
The Australian
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