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Climate activists and organisations say environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision on September 25 to approve the expansion of three thermal coal mines in north-western NSW will “supercharge climate change”.

spokesperson Carmel Flint said the expansions will lock in about 1.5 billion tonnes of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. The coal will be dug up and burned until 2066, generating more than three times Australia’s total annual emissions.

Whitehaven Coal’s will clear 457 hectares of habitat for the endangered koala in the Pilliga Forest, while undermining a key recharge zone of the Great Artesian Basin and draining farm water bores.

MACHEnergy's expands an open-cut mine on the doorstep of the Hunter Valley town of Muswellbrook. It will clear the habitat of an endangered legless lizard, which lives only in the Hunter region. 

Resource Pacific's Ashton-Ravensworth project will reopen the Ravensworth underground mine in the central Hunter Valley, exploiting about 40 million tonnes of coal that would otherwise not have been mined.

“Approving new coal mine expansions during a climate and biodiversity crisis is an act of unparalleled environmental vandalism,” said Joe Rafalowicz, spokesperson for Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

He said despite the looming threat from climate change and the world agreeing on the need to transition away from fossil fuels, Labor has “chosen to side with fossil fuel interests over communities” across Australia and the Pacific.

Flint said the expansion decisions are also “reckless” because of the damage to wildlife, including possible extinctions. For a government that “came to power promising to halt extinction and act on climate change”, it has sunk to a new low.

Thermal coal mines are the “most polluting fossil fuel on the planet”, Flint said, and allowing them to operate until 2058, 2064 and 2066 will mean future generations will pay the price.

Gomeroi Traditional Owner Karra Kinchella, whose country includes the Pilliga Forest, said, “Plibersek’s decision to approve Whitehaven’s destructive Narrabri coal mine expansion is an insult to us and our ancestors. 

“The Pilliga Forest and the water that runs through and beneath it is sacred to Gomeroi.”

Boggabri farmer Sally Hunter said Whitehaven’s documents indicate that at least nine water bores on surrounding farms will go dry.

“These water impacts cannot ever be undone.  This will essentially sterilise a whole swathe of farmland. The mine will be long gone but the water depletion will remain.

“Plibersek is sacrificing precious groundwater so multibillion dollar coal companies can export fossil fuels for decades to come.”

Climate activists in Muloobinba/Newcastle stopped a coal train earlier in the day. About 50 people joined a community protest outside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's office in Gadigal Country/Sydney and then dumped a bag of coal outside Plibersek's office.

Protests were also organised in Naarm/Melbourne, including at the electorate office of Peter Kahil (Wills MP), Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga MP) and Josh Burns (McNamara MP). Around 30 people occupied the office of Graham Perrett (Moreton MP) in Magan-djin/Brisbane.