An environmental group has asked Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission to investigate links between $1m in political donations and a coalmine proposal days before it was due to receive environmental approval.



Lock the Gate Alliance lodged a complaint with the CCC on Monday over the former Newman government’s handling of a proposed mine expansion at Acland on the Darling Downs, which the government originally said would not go ahead.

But the former Liberal National government subsequently reversed its opposition to the mine amid lobbying by proponent New Hope Corporation, which gave along with its parent company about $1m to the federal Liberal party.

Lock The Gate president Drew Hutton said a probe by the CCC needed to take place before an environmental authority was granted under the Palaszczuk Labor government, whose election pledges included an inquiry by the watchdog into links between government approvals and donations.

“[Labor] promised a new era of accountability and transparency in Queensland and that has to start now with the Acland coal project,” Hutton said.

“There is a cloud hanging over this project and the community cannot have any confidence that it has been approved on its merits until a thorough inquiry has been completed.

“Basic accountability demands that election promises by the Queensland ALP are delivered before this controversial project is approved.”

A spokesman for New Hope said in response on Tuesday that the donations were made “because of federal issues at the time”, namely Labor’s carbon and mining taxes “which negatively impacted the mining industry”.

He said New Hope’s only contribution to the state LNP was $3,400 to attend lunch functions with a Queensland federal candidate and then premier Campbell Newman.

Australian Electoral Commission records show the federal Liberal party contributed $3.2m to the state LNP over the same period that the federal party received its donations from New Hope and its parent company Washington H Soul Pattinson.

The New Hope spokesman said: “Business donations to political parties in Australia are common practice and all donations are fully declared on the publicly available donation registers.”

New Hope in October last year separately obtained environmental approval for another coal project, Colton Mine, near Aldershot, which it bought from a mining startup that had its own application knocked back in 2010.

The company’s lobbying efforts included entertaining the LNP’s energy and environment ministers in a corporate box for a Wallabies rugby game in 2013 as well as gifts to mining department staff and former premier Newman, who received an “authentic miner’s lamp and shirt” in 2012.

Newman and other senior government figures sued Alan Jones for defamation over the broadcaster’s criticisms of the treatment of Acland in light of the donations. The lawsuits were later dropped.

New Hope director Bill Grant also gave $2,000 to an election fund for LNP MP Ian Walker, who briefly oversaw the project application as acting state development minister in 2013 and whose daughter subsequently worked for the company. Walker has denied any impropriety.

Environmental authorities for mines are issued by the environment department independent of state ministers.

The Palaszczuk government restored community legal objection rights stripped by its predecessor, which opens the way for a land court challenge to an environmental authority granted to New Hope.