Minns moves to bypass High Court, expand Mount Pleasant coalmine — SkimNews
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- The High Court ruled in favor of the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group, finding that conditions on reducing climate pollution from burning Australian coal overseas were not properly considered when the Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project received NSW approval.
- NSW Premier Chris Minns announced plans, less than two weeks after the ruling, to introduce special legislation allowing MACH Energy to increase production at Mount Pleasant by nearly a third, bypassing the usual planning approval process and court scrutiny.
- Minns said the move is necessary to protect 400 jobs, though the mine already has approval to operate until 2032.
- The International Energy Agency has held since 2021 that existing coal, gas, and oil in the pipeline is sufficient to meet global demand through the transition to net zero by 2050, and that no new or expanded mines are needed on that pathway.
- Jack Egan and nine other Australians have lodged a 'Hard Truths' case with the UN Human Rights Committee, arguing that Australia is breaching human rights by continuing to approve fossil fuel exports that drive dangerous climate change.
- Egan lost his home on New Year's Eve 2019 when the Currowan fire tore through his NSW South Coast community during the Black Summer bushfires.
Why it matters: By introducing legislation to override the High Court's ruling, the NSW government is signalling that climate pollution considerations can be bypassed for fossil fuel projects when political pressure mounts — potentially undermining the legal precedent the community group won and the 2032 approval horizon for the mine.
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