He said the delaying tactics being used by activists were straight out of their playbook, Stopping the Australian coal export boom.

“It is preposterous that a technical administrative hitch could hold up billions of dollars in investment and thousands of desperately needed jobs,” Roche said.

“Adani’s environmental approval did include conditions to manage the protection of the yakka skink and ornamental snake, however due to an administrative error by the commonwealth Department of Environment, the approval has been set aside.”

While reconsidering the decision does not mean a repeat of entire approval process, Roche warned that it would take six to eight weeks until Hunt reconsider it, adding time to a project that has already endured five years of Australia’s “forensic” approvals process.

“It’s time for our governments to step up and close the loopholes that enable these actions and the resulting negative impacts on our industry, not only in Queensland, but right across the country,” Roche said.

“For as long as these loopholes exist, highly motivated and well-funded activists will exploit them. Foreign investors do not have limitless patience as their projects are mired in a seemingly unending process of legal challenges.

He said that since the red carpet was rolled out for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at last year’s G20 meeting in Brisbane, projects like Carmichael have had to fend for themselves as activists and their fellow travellers try to tear them down.

“That red carpet has well and truly been replaced by a thick layer of red tape and the government in New Delhi is not turning a blind eye to what is now rolling out,” Roche added.

He said that in considering how best to deal with the tactics of exploitation of legal loopholes, Commonwealth and state ministers needed to re-read the activists’ anti-coal strategy playbook, which is summed up in this statement:

“Our strategy is to ‘disrupt and delay’ key projects and infrastructure while gradually eroding public and political support for the industry and continually building the power of the movement to win more. We will lodge legal challenges to the approval of all of the major new coal ports, as well as key rail links (where possible), the mega-mines and several other mines chosen for strategic campaign purposes.”

Having scored the “historic win for the climate, fragile ecosystems in western Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef”, activist group the Mackay Conservation Group has described Carmichael as a disastrous project and called on Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to end the “disastrous project” forever.

The group believes Carmichael will make an unacceptable contribution to greenhouse gasses and climate change, will use over 12 billion litres of water a year which will drain underground water sources and will not yield the promised jobs or royalties for Queensland.

“Net jobs for the project [taking into account job losses in other industries] will be as low as 1464 and Adani has exaggerated income from royalties from the Carmichael mine,” the group said.