QRC slams Land Court over Adani cost ruling

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has lashed out at a decision by the Land Court which ruled that a conservation group would not be held liable for Indian major Adani’s legal costs.

Adani turned to the Queensland Land Court in an effort to obtain costs from Coast and Country for its legal bills, after the Land Court in December last year rejected the green group’s bid to halt the $16.5-billion Carmichael coal and rail project.

The Land Court has refused Adani’s application for cost, saying that it was not within the court’s jurisdiction to award costs in such administrative enquiries.

The QRC said that the Land Court’s decision revealed yet another deficiency in the many that infest the court’s processes.

“The QRC has been appealing to the state government to urgently overhaul the flawed system and today’s judgment in the Adani case, adds yet another piece of evidence to back that argument,” said CEO Michael Roche on Wednesday.

“We want the Land Court to act like the administrative tribunal it is meant to be, enabling those in the community who are directly affected by a project to have their day in court to object, and then advise the Minister of its recommendations.

“Instead, the current Land Court process lacks checks and balances, is too costly, too technical and too lengthy. As the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dr Anthony Lynham recently said, everyone deserves their day in court, but not four years in court.”

Roche said that the decision on Wednesday would allow green activists and the Environmental Defenders Office to believe that they would be entitled to rack up costs for resources companies using the Land Court, with no deterrent that if their case was ruled against, they could be liable for the other party’s costs.

“The QRC once again calls on the Queensland government to urgently overhaul the Land Court so that resource projects are not subject to onerous delays that are holding up the job-creating projects for Queensland,” he added.

The Carmichael project, which would comprise an opencut and underground mine, running for a period of some 90 years and producing an average 60-million tonnes a year of thermal coal, recently received Parliamentary backing, with the state government agreeing to a motion that all state government approvals be provided to help create jobs in North and Central Queensland.