Minns government steps in to keep coal mine expansion

The NSW government has introduced laws to allow a Hunter Valley coal mine to continue operating at expanded production rates, despite a High Court ruling against it.

The operators of the Mount Pleasant mine, MACH Energy lost their High Court appeal in October, which centred on a plan to double coal extraction in the Hunter Valley until 2048.

Premier Chris Minns said the new laws being introduced would address the "unique legal uncertainty" arising from the High Court judgement.

"We're committed to our plans in relation to renewable energy and climate change, we're not walking away from it," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"But this is the biggest reform and revolution of energy markets in the state's history, and I reserve the right to make an intervention to protect jobs and grow the economy where I think it's warranted."

Overriding the 'rule of law'

MACH Energy received approval for the Mount Pleasant mine expansion in 2022, but it has been tied up in legal disputes since a NSW Court of Appeal ruling last year found its approval may have been invalid, because planning authorities did not consider the overseas emissions from the exported coal.

The mine has confirmed it continued expanding even after the proceedings reached the High Court, despite the legal uncertainty surrounding its approval to do so.

In October, the High Court delivered its own decision that the expansion was invalid, because planning authorities had failed to consider the "Scope 3" emissions caused when the coal exports were burned overseas, when it approved the mine.

A lower court, the NSW Land and Environment Court, will now review the case in December.

In the meantime, the mine has to rely on its original planning permit, which allows for only 12.5 million tonnes of coal to be extracted per year, 4 million less than the 16.5 million tonnes it was on track to extract for 2026.

Mr Minns has said the bespoke laws introduced on Tuesday would authorise "an increased annual production limit of 16.5 million tonnes until 2032… consistent with their current workforce and coal production profile".

The government denied that it was in effect "overturning" the High Court decision, and said the bill would require the coal exports to go to countries that were signatory to the Paris Agreement.

But legal experts have criticised the intervention as "reprehensible" and described the government's actions as an attempt to override the "rule of law".

"The idea that a substantial mining venture can approach the government and say look, let's go behind the court processes and sort this out between ourselves is a very dangerous precedent, and that's exactly what appears to have happened here," retired judge Anthony Whealy, who is now on the board of the Centre for Public Integrity, said last month.

'It's the vibe'

On Tuesday, the retired teachers who fought the High Court case gathered on the steps of NSW parliament with a range of activists and supporters, including actor Micheal Caton, from The Castle fame.

"In the last 20 years, we have doubled coal production," Caton told reporters at the event.

"We've got less than 25 years to get rid of fossil fuels, but we're doubling production of this mine up in the Hunter."

Caton said he had voted for the Minns Labor government.

"If they keep this up, they won't get my vote,"

he said.

Wendy Wales, the president of the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG), who opposed to the mine, said she was very disappointed the government was trying to pass legislation "ahead of a court process".

"This is a pretty dire situation, and everybody in New South Wales and Australia should be concerned," she said.

Debate on the bill has been adjourned in the lower house to a later date.