Campbell Newman’s Queensland government has trashed native title. But the Quandamooka people of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) are not taking it lying down.

They are up against sand mining company Sibelco, which has a history of illegal mining, criminal charges for sand theft and breaching international conventions. Sibelco donated more than $90,000 to Newman’s election campaign in 2012. Later, the new government amended the North Stradbroke Island Protection and Sustainability Act and expanded and extended by 16 years the company’s mining leases.

Cameron Costello from the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation told Brisbanetimes.com.au that cultural heritage sites are now “in jeopardy”.

The Quandamooka people launched a High Court challenge on 6 June.

The Newman government’s amendments to the act contravene the federal Native Title Act and override the 1992 Mabo ruling that Aboriginal people have rights over their traditional lands. According to these laws, the traditional owners should have been consulted. When state and federal law clash, the latter should prevail.

According to Queensland’s Native Title Services solicitor Kevin Smith, the case has ramifications for Indigenous people. Speaking to Brisbanetimes.com.au, he said: “There are many hundreds of Indigenous land use agreements and if a state government can unilaterally unpick … [the] negotiations of its predecessors – then it is has serious concerns for the (legal) system.”

The Labor Party has recently jumped on board with environmentalists and indigenous activists, calling on the state’s Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) to investigate.

A High Court hearing is unlikely for several months. The challenge marks the start of the Quandamooka people’s “Don’t Undermine our Rights” community campaign.

The case of Sibelco is part of a suite of scandalous corporate schmoozing that has been picked up by the media.

For decades, Karreman Quarries escaped prosecution for quarrying without a permit near the top of the Brisbane River. The activity continues to cause excessive erosion of local farmland and flushes sediment and nutrients into Wivenhoe Lake, the main source of drinking water for Brisbane.

The cost of water treatment has increased and the lake’s capacity has been reduced. Professor Jon Olley, geomorphologist at Griffith University, told the ABC: “The sustainable extraction set by [the Department of Natural Resources and Mines] is 20,000 tonnes a year, and what’s been coming out is estimated to be 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes.”

In June, a package of retrospective legislative amendments to the Water Act, snuck in by deputy premier Jeff Seeney, legalised the quarry’s activities. These retrospective changes mean the company cannot be prosecuted. In addition, the company’s activities can continue unimpeded for another five years. Karreman Quarries also happens to be one of the most generous sponsors of the Liberal National Party, with $75,000 donated over five years.

Late last month, the Queensland Greens accused Newman of putting pressure on a 2013 CMC investigation into coal seam gas project approvals. Immediately after the investigation began, the CMC chair and deputy chair met with Premier’s Department director general Jon Grayson and chief of staff Ben Myers. Until May of this year, Grayson owned a 25 percent stake in a CSG services company. Myers had worked with one of the companies under scrutiny.

Subsequently, in its ruling on 19 September 2013, the CMC concluded there was “no evidence of official misconduct”, and the assessment was never published.

It seems that for the Liberals, this sort of dodgy dealing is just business as usual.