THE coal industry has proved itself an adept campaigner against any suggestion of higher taxation, but the NSW Greens will go to the March 2023 state election arguing for a levy on coal leaving the Port of Newcastle to pay for the rehabilitation of Stockton beach.
Tuesday's announcement by Greens Newcastle candidate John Mackenzie and upper house member Sue Higginson lacked detail on how a levy would be applied - or indeed what the per-tonne amount would be. It does, however, focus attention on why Stockton is eroding.
Debate continues over the best way of getting more sand back onto the shore, but there is no real doubt that Stockton's erosion is a direct consequence of shipping-related changes to the mouth of the Hunter River.
Nobbys is an an artificial beach.
Fort Scratchley was once the southern head of the harbour entrance.
Today, the Nobbys breakwall stretches some 900 metres out into the ocean, stopping almost all of the south-to-north movement of sand.
The smaller breakwall on the Stockton side adds a further barrier.
The effect is clearly visible in the two accompanying aerial photos, and can be contrasted with the 1820 painting, below.
As the Newcastle Herald has pointed out previously, much of the sand that would have once washed across the river mouth to Stockton is piling up, instead, at Nobbys.
The remainder pushes past the breakwalls and comes to rest further up Stockton Bight, where oceanographic reports acknowledge the beach is "accreting", or growing.
Although the reshaping of the harbour mouth began 200 years ago under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the modern coal industry is the biggest beneficiary of the resultant changes.
Volumes were down last year, but Newcastle typically exports 150 million to 160 million tonnes of coal a year.
A levy of 50 cents a tonne would raise up to $80 million a year, which may well be enough to fund the large-scale movement of sand from whatever source - or sources - are finally agreed on.
Further reading: The Save our Stockton file
Coal faces ever-increasing environmental pressures, so agreeing to such a levy would help the industry maintain the social licence it must maintain to continue operating.
Although previous calls for the industry to contribute have fallen on deaf ears, coal companies are making record profits, and there's a strong argument to say the industry should pay at least some of the Stockton costs, directly.
The Greens proposal is logical and well-timed and puts pressure on Labor and the Coalition to respond.
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