Court loss could come at a cost
NEW Hope Group has hit back at claims from Oakey Coal Action Alliance president Aileen Harrison that she is being singled out by the company after the group lost its legal battle against the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 expansion in the Court of Appeal last year.
Ms Harrison, an 84-yearold grandmother and alpaca farmer, and other members of the OCAA are now attempting to take the matter to the High Court.
New Hope issued Mrs Harrison, alongside other executive members of the OCAA, with letters advising the company was considering seeking costs against them.
In a statement released by Lock the Gate Alliance, the group said “this would likely bankrupt Mrs Harrison, who has already suffered terribly due to the mining expansion”.
The statement said that in 2010, Mrs Harrison and her husband Ken were forced out of their home, which was on a property they shared with their daughter, because of the Acland Stage 2 Mine.
“It was our home, our retirement home, on our daughter’s property, and they wouldn’t compensate any of us for it,” Mrs Harrison said.
“None of us were compensated for that house. New Acland got it for nothing. It didn’t seem right and it wasn’t fair.”
Mrs and Mr Harrison now live in a donga near Oakey on their daughter’s property after the family moved, where they care for their alpaca flock.
“All we want to do is live on this land peacefully with our family and our alpacas, but New Acland Coal seem to be trying to take the little that we have left from us,” Mrs Harrison said.
“I don’t know where we would live or what we would do if New Hope took us to court and we were forced into bankruptcy.”
New Hope Group chief development officer Ben Armitage said it was important to understand that New Hope Group had made no claim against Ms Harrison, nor had she been singled out.
“New Hope Group has written to OCAA and all of its office bearers,” he said.
“As office bearers of OCAA, it is assumed they would have approved the legal action against NAC. OCAA commenced proceedings against NAC knowing that, should they lose, OCAA would most likely be responsible for the costs. OCAA also commenced that litigation knowing it had essentially no assets.
“The letters to the executive members were to advise we are considering whether to seek costs orders against them given that they sanctioned legal action knowing that OCAA would not be able to pay any legal costs awarded against it and have asked them to set out their position in relation to this.”
Mr Armitage said that while New Hope paid for its own legal counsel, the OCAA had benefited from free legal advice that was at least partly government funded.
“But the cost to New Hope has been far greater than that spent defending the claims,” he said.
“The true cost of OCAA’s publicly funded legal campaign against Stage 3 has been the loss of 150 jobs at Acland and the ongoing hardship inflicted on the families of these workers and the broader community.
“In relation to the property Mrs Harrison previously resided on, it was in fact owned by her daughter and son-in-law. New Hope agreed to purchase the property and paid above market value. How the proceeds of that sale were used in a family matter between Mrs Harrison and her daughter and son-in-law.”
Mr Armitage said on that issue, the Land Court member indicated during the first Land Court hearing, “I agree with NAC that there are clear issues between Mrs Harrison and her family relating to the sale of Bremar and purchase of a new property. I also agree that they are family matters rather than issues attributable to NAC, save that it was NAC’s mining of Stages 1 and 2 which caused the sale of Bremar to occur in the first place.”
The Oakey Coal Action Alliance is fighting the New Acland Stage 3 expansion to protect what it says is some “of the best agricultural land in Australia” and to have a say over the mine’s effect on groundwater.