Port of Newcastle chairman's comments on coal are basically a call for help | Michael McGowan

New port chairman says the outlook for coal is 'a threat to the port', but Newcastle is hamstrung by the state government's deal with its rival at Botany

It has been called a "seismic shift" in the move away from coal investment. The beginning, in fact, of a "post-coal regional economy".

But the statement by the incoming chairman of the Port of Newcastle that the world's largest coal export terminal must "urgently" diversify is closer to a call for help than a declaration of intent.