Rival unions join push to start new mine

AWU, CFMEU become unlikely allies to demand approval of New Acland coalmine ­expansion.

‘It is unacceptable for the state government to rely on the excuse that the matter is ‘before the courts’’: National secretary of the Australian Workers Union Daniel Walton. Picture: Grant Wells

Longtime labour movement rivals the Australian Workers Union and CFMEU have joined forces to demand the Queensland government immediately approve the stalled New Acland coalmine ­expansion.

In a joint statement, AWU ­national secretary Daniel Walton and CFMEU national president Tony Maher warned that “noisy interests” opposed to the project shouldn’t have priority over the livelihoods of blue-collar workers, energy security and the health of an economy challenged by COVID-19.

Imploring Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to intervene, the union leaders said the state need not wait on the outcome of a High Court appeal by farmers and environmentalists against the $900m development on the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane.

“With the economic effects of COVID-19 playing havoc with the state’s economy and the prospect of more job cuts at New Acland in the near future due to the delay of this project, it is the view of our unions that the Queensland government can no longer just sit on the sidelines,” they told The Australian.

Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union national president Tony Maher and former Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes.

“The Premier has the power to act today. She should do so. It is unacceptable for the state government to rely on the excuse that the matter is ‘before the courts’.”

The joint action by the right wing AWU and the CFMEU mining and energy division, a stalwart of the industrial left, underlines how New Acland cuts across factional lines in the ALP and wider labour movement, increasing pressure on Ms Palaszczuk’s Labor government to approve the coalmine.

Federal Labor frontbenchers Joel Fitzgibbon, Shayne Neumann and Queensland ALP senator Anthony Chisholm have called on Ms Palaszczuk to green-light it.

The mine operator, New Hope Group, has spent 13 years trying to get the redevelopment through, arguing that the existing ore body near Oakey is close to exhaustion. Without the stage-three mine the entire venture will fold, the company says.

It has laid off more than 170 staff in the past six months and has warned more jobs will go if construction of a new pit continues to be held up.

But state Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Minister ­Anthony Lynham insisted the government was bound by a 2017 election commitment to let the legal process play out.

“The New Acland stage-three project has received significant community interest and has a protracted legal history,” he said on Sunday.

“The government’s position on the … mine expansion has been consistent since our commitment before the 2017 election: to accept the decision of the courts.”

With all sides of politics gearing up for a tight October 31 state election, Labor will be anxious to sandbag a swag of marginal seats in the coal belt of central and north Queensland.

The New Hope Group maintains that its comprehensive victory in the Queensland Court of Appeal last year opened the way for the government to approve the project.

Pointing to Ms Palaszczuk’s decision to fast-track the controversial Adani coalmine after last year’s federal election — where Labor was hammered in regional Queensland — the union leaders said: “Premier Palaszczuk ­approved the Adani Carmichael project despite continuing legal action, so too should she approve stage-three of the New Acland Mine.”

If the Oakey Coal Action ­Alliance of farmers and environmentalists wins in the High Court the approval process will effectively restart, sending the case back to the Land Court.