ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Working on behalf of a number of local coal miners and power companies, it goes without saying that Sam Ferguson gets to wine and dine on the company card more than most.

He doesn’t get his hands dirty – unless of course, you find cold hard cash to be filthy.

Part of his role as a lobbyist for the coal industry, the 31-year-old often meets with politicians from all sides of the political divide and then buys them a lavish lunch.

“It’s just how things are done,” he said.

“We have a discussion over lunch and we try to come to an understanding. Some parties are easier to deal with, more my industry especially, that others. But most come around when the money comes out so it’s not really that difficult,”

But today, he says, was different to other days.

Sam explained to The Advocate that this afternoon he had lunch with a prominent Coalition MP who impressed him for all the wrong reasons.

“He was saying these things. Things that made me wonder if he had brain damage,” Sam said.

“After telling me that hydro is turning koalas gay for twenty minutes, he then regaled me with facts about solar energy that spooked me a bit,”

“Saying things like, ‘solar energy is destroying traditional family values,’ and ‘wind power causes brain cancer in sheep,’. I can’t believe my job is this easy sometimes. All I said was coal is a proven source of reliable energy and he basically said he’d do anything I told him to do. I think he might legitimately have brain cancer.”

More to come.