Queensland Resources Council’s “Enough is Enough” petition shows that “many people are sick and tired of green activists exploiting legal loopholes to ‘disrupt and delay’ resource development projects and they want to have a voice too and say ‘enough is enough’,” its CEO Michael Roche said.

Almost 50% of people who signed the petition also making supportive comments about the importance of fighting for jobs in the resources sector, he said.

“The petition is gathering momentum and what we’re seeing from the nearly one thousand comments is that people from around Queensland and indeed around Australia, have welcomed the chance to protest against green activists hijacking the debate,” Roche said.

“This is especially important in regional Queensland, which is doing it tough at the moment after the loss of thousands of jobs.

“We see evidence, as recently as last week in the Supreme Court with the GVK Hanock’s Alpha Coal project, where green activists sought to blatantly game the legal system to stop important job-creating projects.

“Thankfully in the case of the Alpha project, the courts saw the actions of the activists for what they were and ruled in the company’s favour, and awarded costs against the activists.”

Roche said comments posted to the online petition showed that there were many people who wanted balance and common sense injected into the debate and who realised the vital economic contribution that the resource sector makes to local, state and national economies.

“This is the first time we have launched an online petition to give people a voice to stand up for jobs and we are very pleased with the response so far,” he said.

Roche said he would travel to Canberra early next week and would brief federal ministers and shadow ministers on the petition results and seek their support for legislation to close the loopholes.

The Australian Greens are urging the Senate to block the federal government's bill to gut public enforcement of environment law now being debated in the Lower House.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters said: “Tony Abbott and George Brandis want to put big mining companies above the law and stop Australians who care about the environment and climate from upholding the law.

“No matter where you live, all Australians especially farming communities, should have the right to hold big mining companies to the law, especially when the Government has ignored those laws.

“As even Alan Jones has said, it doesn't matter where you live, you can 'sure as hell' be concerned about the protection of places like the Great Barrier Reef and the Liverpool Plains.

“Coastal communities, farming communities, lawyers, scientists and Australians everywhere agree - public enforcement of environment law is an essential public right and tenet of democracy.

“Tony Abbott wants to stop communities from upholding the law so there's nothing to hold him back from breaking the rules for his big mining mates at the expense of our environment and clean energy future.

“We have amazing clean energy alternatives that don't pollute the climate, the Great Barrier Reef or destroy precious farmland.”