Hundreds of Darling Downs coal miners, contractors and farmers have protested in Brisbane against a water bill they say will threaten their livelihoods.
There was a sea of orange shirts and balloons emblazoned with the message "Save Our Jobs" as they picketed outside Queensland Parliament.
Workers and managers from New Hope's New Acland mine near Oakey said they feared the Environmental Protection (Underground Water Management) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill would give anti-coal groups another legal avenue to challenge the mine.
New Hope chief operating officer Andrew Boyd said they had been operating on their existing mining lease for years, but they only had about 18 months worth of coal left.
He said they had been close to finishing in September the approvals process for a new lease which would give them another 15 years worth of coal when the state government introduced the bill.
"If this legislation goes through unamended, we believe we'll have to reduce our workforce mid-next year, significantly," Mr Boyd said.
"We haven't done the work to determine exactly how much but it'll be several hundred people."
Groundwater set to run dry
Mr Boyd said anti-coal groups were ideologically opposed to the mine, but Carmel Flint from the Lock the Gate Alliance said that was not the case.
"Farmers who surround the Acland Stage 3 coal mine are facing the fact that by the company's own estimates, 350 groundwater bores will lose water and many of them may be run entirely dry," she said.
"And that's a situation which is irreversible.
"All the farmers are asking for is a fair go so they can be assured about what the full impacts will be to prevent the worst outcomes."
Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles disagreed with New Hope's argument it already addressed the proposed requirements for an additional water licence through the existing approvals process.
"Mines in Queensland have always been required to have a water licence," he said.
"New Hope were betting on the previous government's legislation, which would have provided them with a guaranteed right to unlimited take of groundwater, which are due to become effective in December.
"We went to the election and have consistently said that we don't accept there should an unlimited right to take and that there should be a scientific assessment, and that's what our laws will achieve."
Mr Miles acknowledged the proposed process would allow members of the public to object, but said the Government was working with New Hope to find a resolution without "unduly delaying" the miner.
Communities rely on the mine to survive
Farmer Matthew Tonscheck said his job at New Acland mine helped him and others like him keep their farms running.
He said deregulation of the dairy industry had forced him to get a job at the mine.
"We're a small farming community that needs extra income to survive," he said.
"Without the mine's income a lot of farming enterprises won't survive, a lot of community businesses won't survive, a lot of schools won't survive."
New Hope began its lease application process nine years ago.
Mr Tonscheck said the long-running uncertainty left people unsure of whether to invest in their farms or businesses.
"There's even people deciding not to have more children, until this approval gets completed," he said.
LNP Deputy Leader Deb Frecklington said the bill should take precedence over all other government business until it was passed or disposed of.
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