Minns accused of bypassing high court ruling with laws to allow NSW mine to increase coal production by 32%

The Minns government plans to introduce special legislation to allow a mine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley to increase its coal production by 32% per year.

The legislation aims to authorise MACH Energy to increase the annual coal output at its Mount Pleasant coalmine by 4m tonnes to 16.5MT per year until 2032.

The move comes less than two weeks after the high court ruled that the approval of an expansion at the mine in Muswellbrook was invalid.

The company is currently permitted to mine up to 12.5MT under a separate modification that was approved in August.

The government claims the legislation will address “unique legal uncertainty arising from the high court’s judgment on 7 October 2026”.

The NSW Greens climate spokesperson and environmental lawyer Sue Higginson has criticised the move, saying it is an “incredible new low for the Minns Labor government, bypassing the planning process and the law as laid down by the high court of Australia”.

Georgina Woods, from the Lock the Gate Alliance, accused the government of “cynical and dangerous political interference in the planning system and the courts to increase coal production and coal pollution”.

The government says the legislation will ensure that the current permanent workforce is retained until 2032, with MACH Energy agreeing to a “jobs guarantee”.