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 32% 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 4m tonnes to 16.5MT per year until 2032. He claimed it was necessary to save 400 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 12.5MT under a separate modification that was approved in August. That approval extended the mine’s operating life to 2032 and increased the coal extraction rate by 2MT per year.
The government said the legislation would address “unique legal uncertainty arising from the high court’s judgment on 7 October 2026”. He said if the bill passed, MACH Energy had agreed to a “jobs guarantee” to ensure that the current permanent workforce was retained until 2032. 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.
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”. 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 3 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.
They’re incredibly difficult, and I’ve agonised over this one in particular,” he said. 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”.
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”. It’s unclear why it needs legislation to increase its production without going through the proper planning process.
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