The Minns government says it will introduce special legislation to allow a mine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley that was the subject of high court proceedings to increase its coal production by ۳۲% per year.
The premier, Chris Minns, said the bill would authorise MACH Energy to increase the annual coal output at its Mount Pleasant coalmine by ۴m tonnes to ۱۶.۵MT per year until ۲۰۳۲. He claimed it was necessary to save ۴۰۰ jobs at the site before Christmas.
The move comes less than two weeks after the high court ruled that the approval of an expansion at the mine in Muswellbrook was invalid.
The company is currently permitted to mine up to ۱۲.۵MT under a separate modification that was approved in August. That approval extended the mine’s operating life to ۲۰۳۲ and increased the coal extraction rate by ۲MT per year.
The government said the legislation would address “unique legal uncertainty arising from the high court’s judgment on ۷ October ۲۰۲۶”.
“After discussions with the company, it’s become apparent that there are ۴۰۰ jobs on the line that will go before Christmas without this intervention,” Minns said on Monday.
He said if the bill passed, MACH Energy had agreed to a “jobs guarantee” to ensure that the current permanent workforce was retained until ۲۰۳۲.
The NSW Greens climate spokesperson and environmental lawyer Sue Higginson said: “This is an incredible new low for the Minns Labor government, bypassing the planning process and the law as laid down by the high court of Australia.
“One thing is clear, under Labor the coal mining giants are writing the laws, and they are laws that will cause significant unassessed climate pollution and hurt communities,” she said.
Georgina Woods, from the Lock the Gate Alliance, accused the government of “cynical and dangerous political interference in the planning system and the courts to increase coal production and coal pollution”.
“Premier Minns is manufacturing a crisis to give special treatment to a coal company – there is no threat to jobs at Mount Pleasant, which already has approval to stay open for another six years,” she said.
“We understand the importance of a safety net for mining communities and back measures that back workers, but this is not about workers. This is about corporate interests trumping the public interest.”
Earlier this month, a majority of the high court found the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) failed to consider imposing conditions aimed at minimising emissions generated when the coal was burnt overseas – known as scope ۳ emissions – to the greatest extent possible.
Minns said the bill, which will be introduced in the next sitting fortnight, would also include provisions to impose “restrictions” on these emissions that were similar to those in the commission’s recent approval of the state’s largest coal project – the Hunter Valley Operations extension.
“These are not easy decisions. They’re incredibly difficult, and I’ve agonised over this one in particular,” he said.
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“But the truth of the matter is, there’s some people who say that the only thing to worry about is industry and jobs in all and every circumstance.
“And there are others who say you should only be worrying about the environment in any and all circumstances. And the truth in our economy and our community is that we have to do both.”
A MACH Energy spokesperson said the company welcomed the announcement, which they said would “deliver operational certainty for the Mount Pleasant mine”.
They claimed the expansion project that was the subject of the company’s unsuccessful high court appeal had been through “a rigorous and exhaustive assessment process over several years”.
“Since that time, the approval has been subject to numerous legal challenges by well-funded activist groups. This has created ongoing fear and uncertainty for local communities who rely on Mount Pleasant for employment, business and community support,” they said.
The director of Johnson Legal, Elaine Johnson, who represented the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (Dams Heg) in the high court proceedings said the government announcement “looks like legislative overreach”.
“The proposed changes to the law to allow an increase in production limits at one mine in NSW makes it look like laws are being written for individual mine owners against the public interest,” she said.
“The mine already has a modified approval allowing continued production until ۲۰۳۲. It’s unclear why it needs legislation to increase its production without going through the proper planning process.
“Communities engaged in good faith in the planning process. This community brought public interest litigation seeking to enforce the law of the land. They won. That decision needs to be respected.”
Asked on Monday if the legislation undermined the high court’s decision, Minns said the government was “not seeking a full approval … just to keep pace with the current workforce and the current profile on the site”.
He said Mount Pleasant was the state’s “last legacy mine” and rejected the idea that the legislation set a precedent to secure jobs at other mines.
“We don’t have other mines, certainly not at that scale, that are pending a high court decision or an appeal process.”
