00:02It was a court decision that had environmentalists buzzing, as a mining company's expansion
00:08hopes were dealt a major blow.
00:10And I believe it was firmly a ruling that met community expectations.
00:16Earlier this month, the High Court found the 2022 approval of Mack Energy's Mount Pleasant
00:22Mine expansion wasn't valid.
00:24The reason?
00:25Because there had been insufficient consideration about the carbon emissions from the coal being
00:29burnt overseas, but today the state government announced it will introduce laws to effectively
00:35grant its own smaller scale approval for production of up to 16.5 million tonnes a year.
00:42It's become apparent that there are 400 jobs on the line that will go before Christmas
00:49without this intervention.
00:50In return, Mack Energy's agreed to keep its current permanent workforce until at least
00:552032.
00:56Certainly the Premier and the Resources Minister understood the issue, understood certainly
01:00the magnitude of the issue, and were able to at least give some certainty.
01:04And there's another condition.
01:06Mack Energy can only sell coal to countries that have signed the Paris Agreement on climate
01:11change.
01:11But the Greens say the Premier's been bullied into a bad decision.
01:15This is a whole new low.
01:17This is a whole new low.
01:17It's giving favour to coal mining corporate giants above the communities of New South Wales.
01:25One Nations set its sights on many of those communities, especially in the Hunter Valley.
01:30The party says it'll protect coal jobs by scrapping net zero altogether.
01:35Chris Minns denies this is all about winning votes.
01:38He says while it hasn't been an easy decision, he'd have made it with or without a looming election.
01:43Why would we do it?
01:44Well, we're a Labor government.
01:46We do need to protect jobs.
01:48Including their own.
01:49Cardinal
01:49.
01:490
01:510
01:510
01:530
01:530
01:540
01:540
01:550
01:550
01:55You
