Matt Canavan has announced a resources taskforce to help the government increase exploration, improve the “social licence” for mining and increase coal exports to Asia.

The resources and minister for northern Australia will unveil the Resources 2030 taskforce at the National Press Club on Wednesday and warn that environmental groups are abusing laws to delay major projects.

In the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Canavan says the taskforce’s job is to “focus on policies that can attract investment, contribute to regional economic progress, build community support, cut red tape, find new minerals and ensure that Australia gets best use of its mineral resources before they are exported”.

The taskforce will have six months before Canavan will develop a national resources statement, a blueprint for the sector to be released in the latter half of this year.

Canavan spells out a number of challenges for the resources sector including the need to “improve the timeliness of approvals for major projects”.

He warns Australia’s environmental laws are “being abused by well-funded groups with a wider agenda than the protection of the environment”.

“The high-profile Adani Carmichael mine has been subject to 13 separate court cases,” he says. “Twelve of them have been resolved with one matter left outstanding.

“None of them have affected the ability of Adani to continue with the project. We should not allow groups to abuse our judicial system to prosecute a political campaign.”

The comments recall the Abbott government’s plan to remove the right of most environmental organisations to challenge developments under federal laws unless they could show they were “directly affected”.

The bill to prohibit so-called “lawfare” lapsed at the 2016 election but Malcolm Turnbull has suggested the government will reintroduce it if the Coalition can win Senate support.

Canavan says the government must “bolster the community support for the resources sector” including through an “ongoing campaign” to inform people of its benefits.

Canavan accuses environmental lobbyists of opposing coal exports for “dubious and self-serving reasons” and Labor of “talking down a great and beautiful Australian industry” by questioning the economics of new coalmines.

“They are acting against Australia’s interests by failing to support our second biggest export, and they are also flat-out incorrect.”

Canavan cites increasing demand for thermal coal, which he says will be 480 million tonnes of coal equivalent higher by 2040 than today in the Asian region.

The minister said growth in resources is “not incompatible with a low carbon future, it is essential to obtaining it” because if Australia shuts down coalmining other countries would fill the void with dirtier coal.

Canavan will announce that $26m pledged to accelerate development of gas fields will be spent on four projects expected to deliver an additional 12.4 petajoules (PJ) to the east coast gas market by 30 June 2020, 27.6 PJ over five years and 110.2 PJ over 25 years.

The resources taskforce will be chaired by Andrew Cripps, the former Queensland minister for natural resources, and includes the mayor of Mount Isa, Joyce McCulloch, the Indigenous leader Marcia Langton and representatives from BHP, Whitehaven Coal, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies and NOPSEMA, the offshore oil and gas safety regulator.