In January, final approvals were granted to dump three million cubic metres of dredged ocean bottom into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to make way for a new coal terminal.
According to figures from the Bank of England, the number of mortgage approvals was under 50,000 in October 2010, compared with a peak of 130,000 in November 2006.
The Greens say this deal prevents any legal recourse against previous Labor decisions, as well as approvals to be considered by Hunt, such as the Abbot Point decision.
But Monday's bill passed with a Labor-agreed amendment which stipulates the Coalition's change should only apply to environmental approvals made up to 31 December this year.
Last month, Tony Abbott announced that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Liberal-National government in Queensland, that would "streamline" environmental approvals.
We no longer have the precautionary principle in place in the whole approvals process".
But this figure doesn't include the emissions from burning all that coal, because there's no requirement in the law to provide this, just as environmental approvals don't take into account the impact of projects on climate change.
Ipp said governments should set up expert bodies to oversee such processes and have the final say in approvals.
The Queensland government has today announced a strategy to speed up coalmining projects in the Galilee basin, giving "first movers" a discount on the royalties they will pay for mining the coal as well as making approvals easier.
"The approvals today are a massive assault on the environment and place the future of the reef in jeopardy," she said.
Decisions granted immunity include controversial approvals in Queensland of dredging at Abbot Point, an LNG export facility at Curtis Island and a coalmine in the Galilee Basin.
