New Acland Mine decision a victory for common sense

Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald has praised coal miner New Hope for weathering a now-abandoned legal storm brought on by the taxpayer-funded Environmental Defenders Office.

Senator McDonald said the New Acland coal mine near Oakey in southern Queensland had passed numerous environmental checks and endured a decade of delays as New Hope tried to expand operations.

“The Albanese Labor Government has created toxic conditions for mining investment in this country with lengthy delays for approvals, anti-mining language and providing taxpayer funding to the EDO which emboldens activists to disrupt mining operations that have already passed some of the world’s most stringent environmental and regulatory processes,” she said.

“We should be supplying the world with our high-calorific, efficient coal but miners are being discouraged by Labor’s industrial relations, environmental and taxation laws.

“A Liberal National Coalition Government will halve approval times for new coal and gas ventures and we will defund the EDO.

“Coal and gas extraction benefits all Australians through royalties and taxes, and provides stable, good-paying jobs for thousands of people.

“Australia cannot afford another three years of a government that is strangling our most valuable industry.”