In 2023, a coal mine was blocked for the first time under federal environmental law. Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal Project was thwarted under a 1999 Act over concerns it would damage coastal habitats and the nearby Great Barrier Reef.

The decision came three months after the Queensland Land Court refused to approve Palmer’s Galilee coal mine because it would harm the environment and, in a first for a climate-change-related action, erode human rights.