This gas plant will do nothing more than push up power prices, destroy farmland, and worsen the impacts of climate change.

Instead of gifting over $610 million of public money to gas corporations, politicians need to support local communities by investing in sustainable manufacturing and renewable energy projects that will create three times the amount of jobs as the fossil fuel industry.

We need a government that supports a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel industry while the market continues to run away with its wallet.

The workers of Australia are being mistreated and led down a dangerously unstable path.

The government needs a plan that supports regional communities, protects our farmland and that is up to date with current technology.

Energy experts from the Australian Energy Market Operator have said that we do not need another NSW gas plant and that forcing households and businesses to rely on gas will simply push up power prices. It is too expensive when compared with renewable energy.

Our message to the government is clear, unless we embrace a renewable future, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

Recent news in The Advertiser about the future of Kurri and Cessnock Hospitals is cause for concern.

It seems that that those in control have not given an ironclad assurance that services there will remain once the new Maitland Hospital opens.

With our growing populations it should be the opposite and services there at least maintained.

It is a crying shame that we on the Coalfields have to live with these uncertainties and draw lines in the sand once again.