EDITORIAL: We could all pay the price of green lawfare

This vividly illustrates how green tape is out of control.

How else to explain a situation in which a coal mine expansion can be strangled by the argument that climate change emissions generated by coal after it is exported and used overseas need to be factored into local approval processes.

And yet here we are, considering the ramifications of a ruling imposed on a project which the NSW Independent Planning Commission had given the tick way back in 2022.

On Wednesday three out of five High Court judges ruled in favour of a community group which had challenged the expansion of MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coal mine in NSW, arguing the local impact of so-called scope 3 emissions from exports must be considered during project planning applications.

Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the ruling set a precedent that would alter future fossil fuel projects.

“Planning authorities in NSW must weigh the climate harm a coal mine causes local communities, including from the coal it exports,” she said.

Not surprisingly, the ruling has caused widespread alarm in the business community about the potential impact on other projects.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable described the decision as a very negative signal to Australia’s trade and investment partners.

“Australian resource companies should not be forced into a situation where well-funded legal attacks over a number of years require a High Court appeal,” she said.

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy in the powerhouse resource State of WA said the ruling could mean job losses, deter foreign investment in projects vital to Australia’s energy security and push fossil fuel developments to jurisdictions with less rigorous environmental standards.

CMEWA chief executive Aaron Morey said it was “folly to believe shutting down Australian projects will somehow diminish global demand for fossil fuels”.

“All it will do is drive investment in those projects to competing countries — many of which enforce much lower environmental and safety standards than Australia does.

“The upshot is we end up with the exact same global emissions profile but deprive ourselves of the substantial economic benefits delivered by our energy exports,” Mr Morey said.

The Coalition called on the NSW Government to legislate to make clear that overseas emissions from exported resources were not a consideration in project approvals — and if it would not do so, for the Albanese Government to act.

Australians are already struggling under cost pressures driven by stubborn inflation, rising interest rates and an economy weighed down by dire productivity, inflexible workplace laws and regulatory burdens imposed by red and green tape.

The court ruling was the opposite of what we need. It could threaten projects which provide thousands of jobs directly and indirectly and government revenue through royalties and taxes that go towards funding the services we all rely on.

Green activists working to halt such projects are naive in the extreme or deliberately reckless.

And we could all pay the price for their actions.

Governments need to react swiftly to ensure the projects on which this country relies are able to go ahead without costly and disruptive delays.

Responsibility for this editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore