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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council on Tuesday welcomed a ruling by the Queensland Supreme Court to dismiss freight operator Aurizon’s legal challenge to a draft decision from the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) for the future operation of the state’s major coal rail network.
Aurizon has consistently warned that the movement of up to 20-million tonnes of coal a year was in jeopardy as a result of the draft decision, with up to ten-million tonnes a year lost from the Goonyella line, up to eight-million tonnes a year from the Blackwater line, up to 1.5-million tonnes a year from the Moura line and up to 300 000 t/y from the Newlands line.
Aurizon in April launched a judicial review application of the QCA’s draft decision on the 2017 draft access undertaking for the company’s Central Queensland Coal Network (CQCN) on the basis of apprehended bias.
The company said, at the time, that the draft decision had been affected by legal error, since the QCA did not afford procedural fairness to Aurizon, owing to QCA chairperson Professor Roy Green’s conflict of interest.
In July, ten coal producers, including Anglo American, Glencore, Peabody, Yancoal and the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, were joined as respondents to the judicial review application.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the case, saying there was no evidence that there had been bias by Green in the QCA’s draft access undertaking, with the freight operator ordered to pay costs.
The QRC on Tuesday said the outcome was important for all Queenslanders, who are set to receive more than A$3.5-billion in coal royalties this financial year.
“The court’s decision allows the QCA to finalise its decision on the future management of the CQCN,” the QRC said.