If Campbell Newman wants to show he is listening to the people of Queensland, he should immediately announce his government will not accept any expansion of the Acland open cut coal mine, says Lock the Gate Alliance.
Lock the Gate’s national president, Drew Hutton said the LNP promised to stop any expansion of the huge mine, west of Toowoomba but then reversed that decision after the election after the LNP received a large donation from the mine owners.
New Hope mine and its Australian parent company, Washington H Soul Pattison, donated about $700,000 to the Queensland LNP and the federal Liberal Party over a three-year period.
Multiple donations of $100,000 and a single payment of $250,000 were contributed by New Hope and its parent company between 2010 and 2013.
Mr Hutton said Campbell Newman should also introduce legislation to give landowners the right to say "no" to mining companies coming onto their land, to restore the power of communities to object to mining projects and to be able to take mining approvals to court.
"The Newman government's arrogance is seen at its worst in the way it treats landowners threatened by coal or coal seam gas,” he said.
“If they want to show they have changed for the better, they should implement these measures as a matter of urgency."