In late August Rod appeared as an expert witness in the NSW Land and Environment Court.  The case is about the proposed Warkworth coal mine extension, which is being opposed by local community group the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association represented by a great team of lawyers from EDO NSW.  Other aspects of the economic assessment of the proposal have been addressed in the case by Dr Richard Denniss of The Australia Institute and Prof John Quiggin of University of Queensland.

We will write more about the case once the judgement has been handed down.  In the meantime, you can read Sydney Morning Herald journo, Paddy Manning’s article on the case.  Unfortunately the article doesn’t mention us as he wasn’t at the court on the earlier hearing day.  Also, the article says  the benefit-cost analysis of the project was conducted by Dr Andrew Searles, of the Hunter Valley Research Foundation.  Actually it was done by Rob Gillespie of Gillespie Economics.  The Hunter Valley Research Foundation carried out economic impact assessment of the proposal based on input-output modelling.

UPDATE:  Here is another SMH article on the case, as final submissions are being made.