Law change to forestall anti-mine activists

The Adani mine’s business viability is in doubt anyway, given the falling coal price and the Indian government’s preference to limit imports of coal.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the law now gave green groups too much power.

The Federal Court, however, appears to be casting doubt on this characterisation, saying they were simply acting on orders from Australian Government Solicitor, acting for Environment Minister Greg Hunt, with agreement from the Mackay Conservation Group and Adani. By contrast, the number of positive outcomes from such challenges – extra protection for endangered species and habits, better rehabilitation of damaged environments of lands – vastly outweighs the costs to businesses or the community.

“It’s for the Labor Party to decide; are you on the side of the workers or are you on the side of the Greens?”

It comes after a Federal Court challenge uncovered the environment minister’s failure to take into account a threat two endangered species would have been exposed to when approving the $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.

Activists have also argued the controversial project could impact the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s most biodiverse marine areas, because the coal would have to be shipped out of a nearby port.

Both Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey repeated the claim the project would offer “10,000 jobs”, despite the environment department’s estimation of only 2475 in construction and 3920 during its 50-year operation.

Federal Labor and the Greens will not support legislation to repeal section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the government is battling for the six Senate crossbench votes needed. This includes anyone who has been a member of a green group in the two years before the decision was made.

As such the government’s plans seem like extraordinary overreach.

It was helped by GetUp! which provided funds for the legal action and the environmental legal centre EDO NSW, which represented the group in court.

The mine was approved with a raft of conditions, but has been delayed until Mr Hunt can fully consider its effects on a vulnerable skink and a snake.

If the court had found in favour of the group, this could have had far reaching consequences for mining projects and how they are assessed.

Other legal groups have rejected the government’s depiction of the decision.

There’s a war going on.

“(It) provides a red carpet for radical activists who have a political but not a legal interest, in a development to use aggressive litigation tactics to disrupt and sabotage important projects”, he said.

“The activists themselves have declared that that is their objective”.

Greenpeace chief executive David Ritter said that is a “bizarre” reaction. “If any government is delusional enough to believe that protecting those assets is abusing process they are not very good representatives of the Commonwealth or indeed anything that we stand for as Australians”.

The four mines in the Galilee Basin were originally spruiked to create 28,000 jobs.

While Australia needs more jobs, we need sustainable ones.