Revelations that the Liberal Government has watered down the environmental conditions of 21 projects, including coal mines, in the past nine months are incredibly concerning, Greens Senator Larissa Waters said.

“The Liberal government is trying to fool communities by saying they have set so-called strict conditions when approving mines that threaten our land, water and climate," Waters said.

“But then the government is going and telling their mining mates not to worry about the conditions after all.

“Not only are approval conditions rarely enforced because the Environment Department is so under-resourced but now the government is actively removing them.”

The government is putting big mining donors ahead of land, water and climate and ignoring the global transition to job-rich clean energy, Waters said.