Miners welcome NSW Premier Chris Minns’ plans for ‘one-off intervention’ after crucial High Court ruling

A State Vovernment is intervening to save hundreds of jobs at a mine central to a recent High Court ruling.

The court earlier this month delivered a 3-2 split ruling in favour of community environmentalists who challenged an expansion at MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coal mine in NSW’s Hunter region.

It upheld a ruling from the state appeals court which found planning authorities must consider climate impacts of downstream emissions when reviewing projects.

But Premier Chris Minns announced plans for a “one-off intervention” on Monday.

He feared the ruling would have forced the scaling back of production at the major open-cut mine and put 400 jobs on the line.

“At a time when families are doing it tough, the last thing they need is the uncertainty of losing their livelihood just before Christmas,” Mr Minns said.

Legislation introduced in the next fortnight would force the company to guarantee it will keep its 826 permanent and contracted workers in their jobs.

It would also allow the company to continue with its planned expansion, increasing its annual production limit to 16.5 million tonnes until 2032.

The government said it expected MACH Energy to “continue working through the court process” to get approval to continue its operations until 2048.

But the company would also be required to mimimise its Scope 3 emissions - greenhouse gas emissions occurring indirectly through a company’s value chain - at the mine, in line with requirements outlined by the Independent Planning Commission.

“Our commitment to tackling climate change hasn’t changed, but neither has our commitment to protecting working people,” Mr Minns said.

The move was quickly welcomed by the NSW Minerals Council.

“The Mount Pleasant mine has endured four years of activist legal challenges, creating uncertainty for hundreds of mine workers, their families and local supplier businesses,” chief executive Stephen Galilee said.

“(It) will provide welcome certainty for those workers and their families, and those working at hundreds of local businesses supplying the mine.”

In his reasons for ruling against the mine, handed down on October 7, Justice James Edelman cited Professor Penny Sackett’s estimates for the project.

She found if it went ahead, it would be one of the 650 largest greenhouse gas-emitting projects worldwide.

Muswellbrook landowner Wendy Wales led the case against the planned expansion of the Mount Pleasant mine.

The retired science teacher dubbed the High Court decision, at the time, a win for Hunter communities.

“We have experienced the change from a country town with a mine over the hill, to a town that is now encircled by mines,” she said.

“Especially when the temperature rises, that town bears that burden straight up.”

But the mining industry feared the judgment’s wider implications.