The federal environment minister has given the green light to the controversial Adani Carmichael mine’s groundwater plan, taking it a step closer to construction.

But left leaning lobby group GetUp’s climate campaigner Sam Regester is already warning the decision will cost the Government seats.

“Make no mistake, they will feel the backlash,” he said. “This will cost them seats. The Coalition can expect to lose a swath of seats around Australia for their capitulation to a single coal company at the expense of the community.

“We’re talking about a company who has shown a complete inability to follow the law and Scott Morrison has rushed through a dangerous approval maybe just hours before his Government goes into caretaker mode.”

He said GetUp now plans to make an extra 100,000 calls into Health Minister Greg Hunt’s electorate of Flinders and 80,000 calls into Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s electorate of Kooyong.

“(Prime Minister) Scott Morrison caving to Adani and jeopardising our water is a huge electoral misstep. People want to protect water. People don’t want a destructive coal mine. And they especially don’t want to see Morrison handing out special treatment to coal companies at five-minutes-to-midnight.”

Environment Minister Melissa Price confirmed today she had signed off on the final plan that Adani needs from the Federal Government for its Carmichael mine. Further approvals are needed from the Queensland Government.

She said science agencies CSIRO and Geoscience Australia had confirmed the company’s revised plans met strict scientific requirements.

“Following this independent assessment and the Department of Environment and Energy’s recommendation for approval, I have accepted the scientific advice and therefore approved the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael coal mine and rail Infrastructure project under Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999,” she said in a statement.

The mine still needs approval from the Queensland Government for its groundwaters plans and its black-throated finch management plan.

“To date, only 16 of 25 environmental plans have been finalised or approved by the commonwealth and Queensland governments with a further nine to be finalised,” Ms Price said.

“It must meet further stringent conditions of approval from the commonwealth before it can begin producing coal.”

She said the company had accepted a number of actions including better monitoring of the Doongmabulla Springs, tighter corrective action triggers if there are any groundwater impacts and more scientific modelling within two years of the start of mining.

The federal government is not providing any financial support to the mine or to its rail project, she said.

Ms Price’s approval comes as environmental groups warned of legal challenges if the minister was pushed into signing off on the project.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Christian Slattery said Australians were right to be deeply sceptical about the process that led to this decision.

“Coal-loving Coalition MPs appear to have strong-armed the Environment Minister into granting Adani access to Queensland’s precious groundwater on the eve of the election,” Mr Slattery said.

“There remain serious questions about how this contentious proposal to take at least 270 billion litres of precious groundwater was approved at the last minute.”

Queensland coalition MPs have been agitating for the minister to make her decision before Prime Minister Scott Morrison goes to the polls, expected on May 18.

Mr Morrison told reporters on Tuesday the decision would be made by “ministers listening to scientists, not senators listening to themselves”.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan earlier attended a shed meeting in central Queensland on Tuesday with Dawson MP George Christensen to reiterate the government’s support for coal mining.

“This isn’t just about one project or one mine — the Labor party wants to get rid of all coal mines and all coal mining jobs,” Senator Canavan said in a statement afterwards.

“The Liberal-Nationals coalition government backs Queensland resources workers and Queensland’s coal mining communities.”

Labor leader Bill Shorten said the environment minister was being bullied in what he described as a “failure of ethics in government at the highest level”.

Mr Shorten said in government he would be guided by the “best science and the law of the land” on the Adani approvals but no taxpayer money would go to the project.

POSSIBLE LEGAL ACTION

There has been unrest within the Coalition amid accusations that Ms Price was deliberately delaying the project because it is unpopular in Victoria.

In a “terse” letter Senator James McGrath warned Ms Price that he would publicly call for her resignation if she fails to treat the Adani project fairly, The Courier Mail reported.

Ms Price’s department last week recommended she approve the mine’s groundwater management plan but the minister was seeking more scientific advice before signing it off, according to The Australian.

The Australian Conservation Foundation warned of possible legal ramifications if Adani’s project was pushed through ahead of an election.

“If the minister has been pressured to abuse the approvals process and rush through a decision before the election, that may open such a decision to legal challenge,” Mr Slattery said.

“In an ongoing Federal Court case the Australian Conservation Foundation is challenging the Federal Environment Minister’s failure to apply the water trigger to Adani’s proposed water pipeline project.”

Jo-Anne Bragg, the chief executive officer of the Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland also warned that the “political threat puts a cloud over Minister Price’s possible decisions on Adani”.

“That’s the sort of cue that would cause us to really dig in and look at the evidence and basis of any decision that she’d make,” she told ABC.

Concerns over the Adani coal mine’s remaining approvals have boiled over, with reports a delegation of Queensland MPs is demanding action.

According to The Australian, Queensland MPs have raised concerns about Ms Price’s delay in signing off the remaining approvals needed for the mine and are worried the delay may mean the decision is left to a future Labor government.

The paper suggests Ms Price received a recommendation to approve the groundwater management plan for the project but refused to do so due to intense lobbying from federal Liberal MPs in Victoria.

Sky News host Laura Jayes reported Resources Minister Matt Canavan even threatened to quit Cabinet over the delay, although he later denied this.

Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin is a contentious project that has sparked mass protests around Australia.

In contrast to Queensland electorates — where many are keen for the jobs the mine is hoped to create — many residents in city areas oppose the mine because of potential impacts to climate change and the Great Barrier Reef, as well as concerns over groundwater use and threatened species.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reportedly denied there has been any delay in the approval process.

RELATED: Will Adani’s Carmichael coal mine go ahead?

The Coalition is not the only party split over Adani’s plan, with reports Labor is also divided over the coal mine.

Labor leader Bill Shorten is reportedly sceptical about the mine but has not said he would block it from going ahead.

Environmental groups have previously slammed the mine’s plan, which they say is not properly assessed and puts water resources at risk.

Adani was originally promoted as Australia’s biggest coal mine that would create 10,000 jobs, but the company unveiled plans for a scaled-back project late last year.

RELATED: The search for Adani’s promised 10,000 jobs

It still needs a groundwater plan and a black-throated finch management plan to be signed off by state governments.

Adani was asked to update its groundwater-dependent ecosystems management plan after the CSIRO, Australia’s peak scientific organisation, identified serious flaws, according to the ABC.

The CSIRO was asked to review Adani’s plan by the Federal Department of the Environment and Energy. Geoscience Australia has also been asked to look at it.

The plan must be approved before Adani can start excavation of the first box cut — a small open cut that acts as an entrance to an underground mine.

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