‘Labor must act to save coal jobs’ at New Acland mine
Queensland’s New Acland coalmine will be closed and hundreds of jobs lost if the state government ignores pleas to intervene.
Queensland’s New Acland coalmine will be closed and hundreds of jobs lost if the state government ignores pleas to intervene after the High Court referred an application to extend the life of the open-cut pit to the Land Court to be assessed for the third time.
In a test of Labor’s renewed commitment to support the coal industry, Annastacia Palaszczuk is facing industry and Labor calls to circumvent the Land Court and approve the expansion before the mine runs out of coal in October.
The High Court decision to uphold an appeal by activists on Wednesday is the latest blow to Australian-owned New Hope’s 13-year bid to expand the mine near Oakey, west of Brisbane, which has passed through four courts and the longest-ever hearing in the Land Court.
An alliance of farmers and environmentalists represented in court by the state-funded Environmental Defenders Office has opposed the expansion, raising concerns about its impact on noise, groundwater and natural resources.
The mine has already shed 200 jobs in the past two years.
New Hope and the Queensland Resources Council urged Ms Palaszczuk to follow a 2007 precedent set by her Labor predecessor Anna Bligh, who introduced legislation to ensure the expansion of a central Queensland mine facing opposition in the courts.
If approved, the $900m expansion would allow for a further 15 years of operation, creating 487 jobs within 18 months and injecting $7bn into the economy, New Hope has said. Ms Palaszczuk has previously said her government would only approve the project after all legal challenges were finished.
Federal Labor figures, including senator Anthony Chisholm and frontbencher Shayne Neumann, last year called on the Premier to approve the mine after the party’s disastrous performance in Queensland in the 2019 eederal election, which was partly blamed on the party’s mixed messages on approval of the Adani mine and perceived ambivalence towards the resources industry.
Mr Neumann on Wednesday called for the Premier to use legislation to protect the New Acland mine and its workers.
“It is too important for the Palaszczuk government not to do everything it possibly can to get this thing going so it injects billions of dollars into the Queensland economy and secures the hundreds of jobs that will come with it,” he said. “They can take the necessary legislative steps or whatever they need to do.”
Senator Murray Watt, last month appointed by Anthony Albanese as federal Labor’s Queensland resources spokesman, said the case needed to be resolved as quickly as possible.
“The local community, particularly local farmers and mine workers, need certainty,” he said.
State Resources Minister Scott Stewart would not comment on the court’s decision and a spokesman referred The Australian to a comment made by Deputy Premier Steven Miles before the decision was handed down. “We’ll look at it closely, and our next steps will very much be determined by what the court decides … we’ll obviously abide by the court’s decision,” Mr Miles said. Ms Palaszczuk is on leave.
Opposition resources spokesman Pat Weir said families in the township of Oakey would be hurting. “A slow torturous process is ending in more uncertainty,” he said.
New Hope Group chief executive Reinhold Schmidt called for a meeting with the state government to discuss the project.
The High Court upheld an appeal by the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, which was fighting for the application to be reassessed in the Land Court, which first rejected to project in 2015 before approving it in 2018 after a judicial review in the Supreme Court ordered it to be reheard.
The Court of Appeal later found a Land Court member had been affected by apprehended bias in making the original ruling and ordered the project to be approved. The High Court declared the matter should have been referred back to the Land Court. The Land Court will next week hold a directions hearing to determine when the full hearing will be held.
EDO managing lawyer Sean Ryan said his clients welcomed the High Court decision. “It is fundamental to the administration of justice that our client and the other objectors have access to an independent decision unclouded by apprehensions of bias or unfairness,” he said.
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