PHOTO: Minister for Natural Resources Courtenay Housson with MLC Stephen Lawrence and Barwon MP Roy Butler in Lightning Ridge on Tuesday
By Lyn Jablonski
Just a week after hundreds of miners attended an urgent meeting in Lighting Ridge, the Minister for Finance and Natural Resources, Courtney Houssos, visited the town on Tuesday 6 June.
Ms Houssos was joined by Stephen Lawrence MLC and Roy Butler, Member for Barwon for direct conversations about sorting out the mess surrounding opal mining leases that has affected more than 800 local miners.
The MPs met with around 15 miners from the Lightning Ridge Miners Association, the Grawin Glengarry & Sheepyards Miners Association, and two miners from White Cliffs, as well as around ten local landholders and the Crown Reserves Trust to discuss how to speed up the reissuing of mining licences for the opal fields…