The Coalition will not revise its decision to allow the $1.2bn Shenhua mine to go ahead in the New South Wales Liverpool Plains, one frontbencher has said, as Labor hedged its bets on how it would proceed with the controversial project.

The federal government last week approved the Chinese company’s Watermark coalmine, provided it fulfils 18 requirements.

But critics – including Nationals frontbenchers, agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and assistant health minister Fiona Nash – say it does not make sense to mine in the region’s rich agricultural land.

The trade minister, Andrew Robb, said the government was not tempted to change its mind. After being asked to confirm on Sky News on Sunday that the federal government would press on with the project, Robb answered: “That’s correct.”

Labor is refusing to rule out scrapping the project if it gets back into office.

“What we think is that you’ve got to get the balance right, in terms of not just short-term mining, but also the long-term agricultural value of the Liverpool Plains,” the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said. “This is really a question for the scientific experts.”

Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, was just as equivocal.

“People expect me to have a solid view on the coalmine, I appreciate that, but these are very complex issues and each project, coalmining or coal seam gas, has to be dealt with on its merits,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday. “I don’t have the volumes of information [environment minister] Greg Hunt has on his desk. I don’t have the water modelling, etc.”

Labor instead chose to highlight the rift in the cabinet over the issue. Shorten said Joyce’s position on the frontbench was untenable.

“Either as a minister in the cabinet of Mr Abbott, he supports the decisions made by that cabinet, or he doesn’t – but he’s got to stop playing in the traffic,” Shorten told reporters in Melbourne. “He needs to decide whose side he’s on. He needs to nail his colours to the mast, and if he doesn’t agree with his prime minister, I think it is unsustainable.”

Robb backed Joyce, whose electorate encompasses the Liverpool Plains.

“Barnaby is a particular personality, and it brings with it great strengths and we want to continue to keep enjoying those strengths, and in many respects I think my colleagues understand the other side of Barnaby,” he said.

He said the cabinet was full of headstrong “type A” personalities.

“You have to make some judgements – the prime minister certainly has to – about how he manages the Coalition, about how he manages his colleagues, his cabinet,” Robb said. “I think in this instance, Barnaby obviously feels enormously strongly about it, has made that point of view, and the prime minister is comfortable that it is not going to cause a fracturing within the Coalition.”

Robb said the mine would bring in $16bn in investment, and provide enough coal for 100m Indian households for 100 years.

“This is a humanitarian role as well as an important commercial aspect of Australia’s growth,” he said.

On Sunday, the Australian Industry Group issued a statement supporting the mine, saying it would add to NSW’s economy and spur growth in jobs.



“The Watermark mine clearly arouses strong feelings, and the government deserves credit for taking a considered decision on a difficult issue,” NSW Ai Group director Mark Goodsell said.