Retired judge slams NSW plan to legislate Mount Pleasant coalmine's higher output
Less than two weeks after the High Court ruling, Premier Chris Minns announced laws to let the Hunter mine extract 16.5 million tonnes a year.
What the source says
- Premier Chris Minns announced laws to let MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant mine extract 16.5 million tonnes of coal a year, the amount it had already scaled up to, saying they address "the unique legal uncertainty arising from the High Court's judgement" and protect 400 jobs.
- Former Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy, now on the board of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the plan "obliterates" the legal process, called it "reprehensible" and said there was "no evidence whatsoever to show that 400 jobs are under threat here."
- Company documents show MACH started earthworks for "the next phase of the Mount Pleasant expansion" in August 2025, weeks after the Court of Appeal ruled the 2022 approval invalid; the mine produced 12.78 million tonnes by December 2025.
- On 14 August 2026 the planning department said it would modify MACH's 1999 approval to lift output from 10.5 to 12.5 million tonnes a year and extend the mine's life by six years.
- In Parliament on 20 October, Resources Minister Courtney Houssos said the government had checked employment records with the company and the union, while Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said: "This is state capture, right here."
- MACH welcomed the announcement and said it "obtained legal advice that confirmed the 2022 consent remained valid during the High Court proceedings."
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-21
Earlier coverage
This story follows on from earlier N.A.N.A. coverage. Here is what we reported before, with links to each story and its source.
High Court says NSW must count the coal burned overseas
A 3–2 ruling on the Mount Pleasant mine near Muswellbrook means planners can't ignore emissions from exported coal.
What we reported then
- Three of five High Court judges sided with the Hunter Valley residents' group DAMSHEG, finding that NSW planning authorities must weigh the emissions from fossil fuels burned overseas when they approve a mine.
- The Mount Pleasant open-cut mine near Muswellbrook had its expansion approved by NSW planning authorities in 2022. The NSW Court of Appeal halted that approval in July 2025, and operator MACH Energy appealed to the High Court.
- MACH Energy wants to dig 444 million tonnes of coal through to 2048. Burning that coal would release more than 870 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent, almost all of it outside Australia.
- The court found the Independent Planning Commission needed to consider imposing conditions to minimise, to the greatest extent practicable, all greenhouse gas emissions, not just those at the mine gate.
- Anita O'Hart, the residents' principal lawyer, said the High Court had confirmed planning authorities cannot ignore the chain of causation from a project's emissions. DAMSHEG president Wendy Wales said you cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas and watch it drive climate change without the consequences coming home.
- MACH Energy said it would review the decision and that clear legal principles benefit proponents, regulators and communities alike. It noted a separate NSW permit from August lets the mine keep operating until the end of 2032.
- University of Melbourne's Liz Hicks said the decision turns on NSW law, so its direct effect on other states is limited, though courts across the country will take note.
Source then: ABC News, 2026-10-07
Why it matters here
Mount Pleasant is in the Upper Hunter, the valley next door to the Manning. Worth watching how the bill fares in the NSW Parliament, because it sets the pattern for what happens when a court sends a mine approval back.
Right. I've stood on plenty of mine sites, and I know 400 jobs are real people with real mortgages, and the company says its lawyers told it to keep digging. But a court said the approval was no good, and the answer is to write a law that makes the extra coal legal after it's already out of the ground? Who's checking the rules when the rules get rewritten to fit the hole?
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N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters. Facts above come from the named source; the take is labelled opinion.