Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

While Labor acknowledges the role of burning coal in increasing global CO2 emissions and in climate change and while we congratulate the Gloucester community for their responsible social activism, Labor cannot support this motion as it misrepresents the court's decision.

In the judgement, Judge Preston stated:

In the case of the Rocky Hill Coal Project, the aggregate GHG emissions over the life of the Project are sizeable, although the Project is not one of the largest coal mines in Australia. The Minister noted that the proposed production of the Rocky Hill mine appears to be about a third of the production of the average coal mine in NSW (Minister's closing submissions, [423]). Refusal of consent to the Project would prevent a meaningful amount of GHG emissions, although not the greater GHG emissions that would come from refusal of a larger coal mine. However, the better reason for refusal is the Project's poor environmental and social performance in relative terms. As I have found elsewhere in the judgment, the Project will have significant and unacceptable planning, visual and social impacts, which cannot be satisfactorily mitigated. The Project should be refused for these reasons alone.

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