The council has been calling for tougher sanctions against the activists who have taken action such as boarding trains and manually shovelling coal from carriages. 

But protest group Front Line Action on Coal said the QRC claims should be considered against a report which found fossil fuel corporations were avoiding paying tax despite massive profits.

The Market Forces report showed 62 companies paid no taxes despite total income of more than $114 billion.

Environmental activist Kyle Magee is currently being held on remand after he was arrested for stopping Adani’s coal train for more than 20 hours and shoveling coal out of a carriage. In another case, six activists who stopped a trainload of coal from Adani’s Carmichael mine and climbed machinery at Abbot Point coal terminal faced Bowen Magistrates Court. Four were sentenced, with penalties ranging from an 18-month good behaviour bond to fines of $800 to $2000.

Juliet Lamont, a 50-year-old documentary film-maker, was given a one-month term of imprisonment suspended for nine months for locking herself to a train carrying the first coal from Adani’s mine. She had initially been refused bail and has been held in custody since taking the action.

Another activist in NSW was sentenced to 12 months’ jail for stopping a coal train.

The campaign has become heated recently with clashes between activists and security and staff at Adani’s Carmichael coal project with both sides claiming to have been attacked.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said less coal for export meant less royalty revenue for the state Budget.

 “Right now, Queensland needs all the revenue it can get to deal with the ongoing, economic impact of Covid-19, which is unfortunately a long way from being over,” Macfarlane said.

 “People who choose to lock themselves onto rail lines and port equipment and climb onto coal wagons are not harmless, and their actions come at a huge cost to individual companies and to Queensland.

 “There are other, lawful ways to express your political views which don’t place people’s lives, jobs and safety at risk, or cost the taxpayer millions of dollars in lost state revenue.’’

Mr Macfarlane said having to deal with threats and abuse by protesters on a regular basis was also taking a toll on the health and wellbeing of affected resources’ employees.

“In some cases, female employees have been subjected to disgraceful sexual slurs, which have no place in any workplace under any circumstances,” he said.

He said existing laws allowed for protesters found to have acted illegally to be jailed, or fined up to $7000.

“The QRC is urging courts to protect resources’ employees and companies from anti-social and disruptive behaviour by imposing penalties on activists who break the law that reflect the physiological and economic damage they are causing honest, hard working Queenslanders.”

Front Line Action of Coal said if mining corporations were really concerned about tax revenue, they would pay their fair share of company tax.

“It is their profits they are worried about – money that comes from destroying our planet then leaving someone else to clean up the mess,” FLAC said.

“Mining only makes the huge profits it does because they externalise the environmental costs – including the future costs of climate change caused by their current business.

“Civil disobedience has a long and honourable tradition of creating positive change in human rights and environmental outcomes. We use these tactics because they have been proven to be effective.

“The disproportionate influence of mining companies, demonstrated here by their attempts to influence the judiciary, are the reason why ordinary people have to use a range of creative tactics to achieve what should be common sense objectives.

“We are concerned with a sustainable future for our planet, and for mining companies to destroy our climate for their own profits and then try to claim the moral high ground is dishonest and pathetic.”