Chris Minns’ coal expansion laws risk worsening the climate crisis
Climate advocate Jack Egan argues that the New South Wales government is undermining climate law by proposing special legislation for MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coalmine in Muswellbrook. The measure would let the company increase production by nearly a third while bypassing the usual planning process and court scrutiny, less than two weeks after Australia’s High Court found that conditions to reduce emissions from exported coal had not been properly considered when the expansion was approved.
Premier Chris Minns says the intervention is needed to protect 400 jobs, although the mine is already authorised to operate until 2032. Egan supports a just transition into secure, climate-positive employment but says overturning the practical effect of a legal victory by local campaigners Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan signals that powerful coal companies need not follow the same rules as other Australians.
Egan, who lost his home in the 2019 Black Summer bushfires, links continued coal and gas expansion to increasingly severe climate disasters. He cites the International Energy Agency’s position since 2021 that no new or expanded fossil-fuel projects are required on a pathway to global net zero by 2050. He has also joined nine other Australians in asking the United Nations human rights committee to assess whether government support for coal and gas exports violates rights to life, family and home, as well as First Nations peoples’ rights to protect Country and culture.
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