Pro-coal Labor MPs demand Acland mine action

Two senior federal Labor MPs have urged their Queensland counterparts to approve a stalled extension to the New Acland coalmine.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: AAP

Two senior federal Labor MPs have urged their Queensland counterparts to approve a stalled extension to the New Acland coalmine by the New Hope Group before it slashes more jobs.

Pro-coal frontbenchers Joel Fitzgibbon and Shayne Neumann broke ranks with the state Labor government by demanding a green light for the long-delayed expansion of the mine.

Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington vowed that a Liberal National Party government would “approve this project as a priority”, stamping it as an election issue in the run-up to the October 31 poll.

As revealed by The Australian, New Hope this week laid off 23 staff from its Brisbane HQ and coal terminal and warned of further job losses unless a $900m expansion of the depleted mine at Acland on the Darling Downs went through.

The cuts were on top of 150 production positions shed in October.

The company has been fighting for nearly 13 years to develop stage-three of the New Acland project in the face by bitter opposition by a coalition of farmers and environmentalists.

New Hope thought it had cleared the final hurdle last year when the state’s highest court, the Queensland Court of Appeal, delivered judgment and orders in its favour after prolonged hearings in the Land Court and the Supreme Court. But the Oakey Coal Action Alliance last month secured special leave to appeal to the High Court, potentially dragging out the case for another 18 months.

Mr Neumann, the only federal Labor MP to hold a Queensland seat outside the state capital, urged Premier Annastacia Palas­zczuk to “get on with it” and approve the mine expansion. “It is good for jobs, good for the economy and as long as it satisfies environmental standards, they should get on with it,” he said.

Mr Fitzgibbon, Labor’s NSW Hunter Valley-based agriculture and resources spokesman, said retrenched New Hope logistics operator Harry Redmond voiced a legitimate concern when he told this paper on Wednesday that the party had lost touch with its ­working-class base.

“Harry Redmond speaks for tens of thousands of blue collar workers,” the former Rudd government minister said.

“I know because I speak with them every day.

“There is something wrong with an approvals process which can run on for more than a decade.

“It sends a devastating signal to investors to take their money elsewhere.”

The Queensland government insists it is bound by an election commitment in 2017 to let the legal proceedings play out — a proposition rejected by New Hope, which maintains that last year’s fast-tracking of the Adani Group’s Carmichael coalmine by Ms Palaszczuk showed the government could act if it wanted to.

Labor’s positioning on the Adani project was key to its vote crashing in regional Queensland at the 2019 federal election, and the party is desperate to avoid being depicted as anti-mining in regional battlegrounds that could decide the state poll.

Responding to the call for action on New Acland, state Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Minister Anthony Lynham said: “I respect their views but the government’s position has been consistent since 2017.”

Ms Frecklington said Labor should approve New Acland stage-three and “stop costing jobs by hiding behind legal processes”.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane, a former senior federal minister under John Howard and Tony Abbott, said COVID-19 meant there couldn’t be a “worse time to stop new jobs”.

“The Queensland government has sat back and allowed lawfare by a small group of green activists to jeopardise the economic recovery of this state by delaying New Acland,” he said.