In allowing coal expansion in the Hunter, Chris Minns is pouring fuel on the climate fire. His decision will come back to hurt us all | Jack Egan
Two retired science teachers took on the New South Wales government and won a high court ruling that the state is responsible for emissions from the coal it exports. That should have been a moment for the Premier to pause. Instead, Chris Minns is allowing coal expansion in the Hunter, which sounds less like a policy choice than a deliberate end run around the law.
I keep thinking about Jack Egan, who lost his home in the black summer fires and felt buoyed by that ruling. The high court gave him and the community a legal foothold, and the government's response is to step in and bypass it. That matters beyond this one valley. It tells every community that even a court victory can be undone by a government that doesn't like the result. It also makes a mockery of climate accountability, because what's the point of establishing responsibility for exported emissions if the state can simply approve more coal anyway?
I'd want to know what legal avenues the group has left. But the bigger question is political. Minns is betting that coal's economic weight matters more than the fires, floods and heat already arriving. History will judge that bet harshly, and so will the people living through it.