Jobs under threat as Greenies take taxpayer funds for legal challenge

Taxpayer-funded anti-coal “lawfare” activists are threatening the future of a major mine west of Brisbane, employing hundreds of people.

The future of a major mine west of Brisbane, employing hundreds of people, remains under threat from publicly-funded anti-coal “lawfare” activists.

The Oakey Coal Action Alliance, through the taxpayer supported Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), is seeking to overturn the State Government’s decision to grant New Hope’s New Acland Mine Stage 3 an associated water licence.

The challenge, which is set to come to a head in the Land Court later this year, comes despite the Queensland Government and numerous independent experts finding the project stacks up environmentally, socially and financially.

There are now growing calls for the EDO to be defunded with former Labor cabinet minister Joel Fitzgibbon saying legal aid for activists was “hurting” the Australian economy.

The EDO earlier this year lost a landmark case against Santos’s $5.3bn Barossa LNG project with claims the company’s proposed 262km pipeline would cause irreparable damage to First Nations people and their sites being rejected.

Analysis of the EDO’s publicly available annual reports reveals it received about $1.3m in state and federal funding last financial year, including about $400,000 from the Queensland Government.

One has to ask why the Queensland Government is actively funding activists who are opposed to a project that itself has greenlighted. The Department of Environment and Science’s decision to support the EDO and partly bankroll a challenge to the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water’s decision to award New Acland Mine Stage 3 an associated water license just makes no sense.

During a cost-of-living crisis, it appears to be a complete waste of taxpayer dollars and puts at risk hundreds of secure, well-paid regional jobs at the New Acland Mine.

New Acland coal mine, outside Oakey.

Over an extensive period, New Acland Mine Stage 3 has cleared every hurdle, including the Land Court process, the Coordinator General’s extensive consultation process, the separate independent assessments of the Queensland Department of Environment and Science and the Minister for Resources, the thorough examination by the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water and most recently an independent, internal review. New Hope chief executive Rob Bishop has defended the company’s environmental record, saying those that responsibly manage operational impacts on the environment were the most appropriate to produce coal that will be required through the energy transition.

The OCAA, through the EDO, is determined to take New Hope Group back to Land Court for a record fourth time. Who is OCAA? According to its Facebook page, OCAA is a not-for-profit community group formed in 2011 by “concerned community members who care about a sustainable future for our district.”

However, in testimony given in the Land Court in 2021, OCAA President, Aileen Harrison revealed she does not know who the OCAA members are, or where they live.

If the OCAA president doesn’t know this basic, but essential information, how could the EDO? A New Hope spokesman said that despite securing all the necessary approvals from the Queensland Government, persistent legal action by taxpayer funded, anti-coal activists continues to complicate the expansion of the mine. “Never-ending legal challenges by activists has created ongoing and unnecessary uncertainty for the local community, our workforce and their families,” the spokesperson.

New Hope Group CEO Rob Bishop.

Originally published as Jobs under threat as Greenies take taxpayer funds for legal challenge