Battle over New Hope’s Acland coal mine heads to High Court
The battle over New Hope’s Acland coal mine expansion will be heard in the High Court after opposition groups won leave to appeal.
The battle over the third stage of New Hope’s Acland coal mine will be heard in the High Court after leave to appeal against earlier court decisions was granted to a group opposed to the mine.
Victory in the High Court for the Oakey Coal Action Alliance could see the matter returned to Queensland’s Land Court, which has already considered the matter twice before.
But the win was a limited one the activist group, with the High Court only likely to review whether the matter should be returned to the Land Court — it was not asked to consider the substantive findings of earlier legal hearings that effectively ruled the state government should give the project the go-ahead. New Hope said on Friday the Queensland government should immediately grant the approvals.
Acland is running near the end of its current mine life, and New Hope cut 150 jobs from the operation late last year and has said further delays could jeopardise the future of the entire operation.
And despite the prospect of the court case dragging on, New Hope ramped its pressure on Queensland’s Labor government on Friday, calling for immediate approval for construction of the mine.
“OCAA are not challenging findings on groundwater or any other environmental issue that is relevant to any decision being made by government,” New Hope said in a statement.
“Accordingly, the company is asking the Queensland state government to immediately approve New Acland Stage 3.”
The Queensland government gave key environmental approvals in early 2019, but New Hope still needs the grant of mining and water licenses before it can begin construction of the expansion, and the state government has previously said it will not grant final approvals until the mine’s legal position is settled.
New Hope’s call was joined by federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt, who said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk could not stand by and watch the remaining 150 jobs at the mine disappear.
“The fate of this significant new resources project now rests squarely with the Queensland Government which needs to stop hiding behind lawyers and make a decision,” he said.
The legal stoush between New Hope and the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, a group of farmers and community members opposed to an expansion of the mine, has been running since 2016, when Queensland’s Land Court recommended against the environmental approval of the mine.
A subsequent Supreme Court case found in New Hope’s favour and the matter was returned to the Land Court, which this time recommended the Queensland government approve construction of the expansion, which would extend the life of the project and allow the export of 9 million tonnes a year of coal from the operation.
The OCAA appealed the Supreme Court decision as the Land Court was considering the matter for the second time. It lost the case on its substantive grounds — primarily its challenge to a ruling that the Land Court does not have the jurisdiction to consider groundwater issues — but a cross-claim by New Hope that the original Land Court judge showed “apprehended bias” in his consideration of the company’s first case was upheld.
But the Court of Appeal did not order a third Land Court review on the basis of that finding, instead ordering that the earlier decisions should stand.
It is those orders that the High Court will consider when the case is heard in the matter’s final appeal.
In a statement OCAA secretary Paul King said local farmers opposed to the mine expansion welcomed the decision.
“It gives them renewed hope for their future,” he said.
New Hope shares closed unchanged at $1.495 on Friday.
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