Lock the Gate Alliance welcomes today’s Federal Court ruling that the Morrison Government should have applied the “water trigger” to Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme.
The scheme would suck up to 12.5 billion litres of water each year via a 150km pipeline from the Suttor River for use in the Carmichael coal mine.
“This is a setback for Adani and proof the government has mishandled the assessment process for the company’s destructive Carmichael coal mine,” said Lock the Gate Alliance Queensland spokesperson Ellie Smith.
“This means if Adani wants to continue with its North Galilee Water Scheme it will have to go back to the drawing board and submit it to a full and rigorous assessment.
“This is an important outcome for landholders and communities in Central Queensland who rely on the water Adani wanted to take for its polluting coal mine.
“This decision exposes the Morrison Government and its efforts to ram through the Adani project at all cost, even ignoring their own experts at the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources who recommended that the water trigger should have been applied.
“This ruling thankfully proves the Morrison Government made the wrong decision, and now sets a precedent for other large coal and coal seam gas projects planned across Queensland and the nation.
“Lock the Gate Alliance commends the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Office for their dogged pursuit of this matter through the courts.”
ENDS