At its simplest, Warkworth is about government failing to govern – handing the power it is supposed to have to the legal system where lobby groups and lawyers revel in a sort of perpetual motion process that avoids a final decision ever being made.

In the Warkworth case – and that of another coal project, Berrima Medway – the New South Wales government has approved extension projects to existing mines.

However, a court has blocked the decisions, leading to a very simple question: who is in charge?

As the situation stands there is no doubt the court is in charge though it can then be argued that judges in the Land and Environment Court are merely enforcing the laws as passed by the NSW Parliament.

No prize for guessing that this is a hopeless situation. The people who made the law want certain things to happen while the people enforcing the law what something else to happen.

Sir Humphrey Appleby, the fictional head of the civil service in the Yes, Prime Minister television series would be delighted with such a stalemate because it means a position of equilibrium has been achieved, with nothing happening except a series of appeals and counter appeals that can last years.

In the Warkworth case, the process designed by the NSW government has been running for more than three years, costing mine owner Rio Tinto millions of dollars and now likely to cost 1300 people their jobs.

What has happened is the mine approvals process, which is supposed to give the NSW planning minister the final say in contentious matters, has been hijacked by a lobby group that has found a way to circumvent the law by convincing a judge that he actually has the final say.

So, rather than having any decision at all, the process continues with the minister joining an appeal against the court decision and a guarantee that whatever the result of the appeal, it too will be appealed – and on we go.

Needless to say such a situation of legal pinball suits anti-coal campaigners who have found a way to stifle the industry using the law in a way the government may not have expected but is quite legal.

Something has to give.

The first something is likely to be 1300 workers who will be looking for new jobs as Rio Tinto closes the gates at Warkworth.

The irony, of course, is that closing one mine means the coal will simply come from another mine, either in Australia or from somewhere else.

As The Hog has explained previously, coal has become the growth commodity in the fuel sector because lower prices means it is the cheap fuel and in tough times cheap always wins.

Government, either at a NSW or national level, cannot allow the Warkworth situation to drag on because the financial world is watching closely.

Financiers are already nervous about committing more capital to a country that has become too expensive and is becoming ungovernable as important decisions are avoided or annulled by a never-ending appeal system.

As Rio Tinto’s senior coal man Darren Yeates said during the week: “Unless this decision [of the court] is overturned it sets a precedent that puts major projects in mining, public infrastructure and a range of industries at risk.

“It means the decisions of the planning minister, the independent Planning Assessment Commission and the government departments charged with assessing whether projects should be approved can simply be overturned at the end of the process.”

The Rio Tinto man is almost right but he erred by saying the decisions of multiple layers of government could be overturned at the end.

There is no end – and that is the truly farcical aspect of what is happening in NSW, because a system of perpetual motion that avoids a final decision has been created.

For business this lack of a final decision is worse than no decision at all because it means a lack of certainty and that, in turn, means additional costs.

Can the Warkworth extension project be saved?

The Hog, sadly, thinks not. He fears that government has made such a mess of the approvals process that any resolution could be months and possibly years away.

Time, in this case, really is money and with Rio Tinto hunting around for savings there is a fair chance the company will opt to walk away, sending a terrible signal to the rest of world about Australia becoming an investment no-go zone.