Green groups blast Barilaro’s ‘cherry-picking’ Hunter pollution claim

Mr Barilaro, who is due to announce the Nationals’ candidate for the Upper Hunter byelection on Thursday morning at a coal mine, told the Herald pollution figures “have been misinterpreted by anti-mining propagandists who are cherry-picking one-off measurements to suit their agenda”.

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“Air quality in the Upper Hunter has improved over the past six months,” he said. “Daily [particulate] levels in Muswellbrook and Singleton have been within the national benchmark for 99 per cent of the time during Spring 2020.

“As a consequence of the standardised hourly reporting, short term peaks do occur but these statistical outliers are the exception rather than the rule.”

The future of coal mining has already become a focal point…