The legal fraternity has accused the Abbott government of undermining the rule of law through retrospective legislation to prevent court challenges to the approval of mining projects where conservation advice is ignored.

A Senate committee has given the green light for Environment Minister Greg Hunt to introduce protections that would effectively sandbag him from legal action against all approvals he has made or will make.

A Senate committee has given the green light for Greg Hunt to introduce protections that would effectively sandbag him from legal action against all approvals he has made or will make. Credit:Andrew Meares

Those include permission for Clive Palmer's giant coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin that will ship its product through the Great Barrier Reef, the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal and a fourth coal-seam gas plant at Gladston Harbour.

The government proposed amending the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act after a decision by Mr Hunt's Labor predecessor, Tony Burke, to allow an iron ore mine in Tasmania's Tarkine wilderness was overturned by the Federal Court because the former minister had not considered advice that a mine threatened Tasmanian devil numbers. The mine has since gone ahead.