# Queensland moves to shut objectors out of mining courts

> A new Queensland bill would let the mines minister decide who gets to challenge a coal project in court, and only if they live within 125km.
- Title: Queensland moves to shut objectors out of mining courts
- Summary: A new Queensland bill would let the mines minister decide who gets to challenge a coal project in court, and only if they live within 125km. Objection rights…
- Keywords: queensland, coal, mining, environment, law, news, world, moves, shut, objectors, courts, the Guardian
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/16/queenslanders-rights-to-oppose-mining-projects-gutted-by-new-laws-activists-say
- Published: 2026-09-15T23:39:48+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: queensland, coal, mining, environment, law, news, world
## A 125km line on the map
New Queensland legislation would ban people from being heard in court over a mining project unless the minister approves it, and then only if they own property within 125km of the site.
## Streamlining, says the minister
Natural resources minister Dale Last tabled the bill on Tuesday and framed it as faster approvals, aimed at distant activists and green groups he says are funded from overseas.

> Activists based thousands of kilometres away and green groups funded by foreign overseas entities are no longer eligible to have a say
## The court referral becomes optional
Right now an objection goes automatically to the state's land court for independent review. The bill hands that referral to a decision-maker's discretion: the resources minister for leases, the environment director general for approvals.
## Pick and choose scrutiny
Anthony Gough of the Queensland Conservation Council says the minister of the day could decide which objections reach open court and which mines get waved through without it.

> strips community members of their right to have their objection to damaging mining projects heard in court
## It saved K'Gari once
Gough points out that most objections come from local farmers and landholders protecting soil, bushland and water, and that this same process ended sand mining on World Heritage-listed K'Gari.
## The review that never landed
The government scrapped a months-long Queensland Law Reform Commission review of objection laws weeks before its findings were due, replacing it with a cabinet sub-committee.
## Eleven years at New Acland
Last cited the New Acland expansion fight as proof the process must change. The Oakey farmers who won that high court case say the law is being rewritten so they cannot win again.

> King Coal also heard and had the Queensland Government change the laws so we could not win again
## Key takeaway

Objection rights are being narrowed from a legal guarantee to a ministerial favour, which shifts who can hold a mine to account from anyone in Queensland to a small ring of nearby landholders.