Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned the pressure is now on Labor to declare its position on the Adani mine after the government ticked off on one of the final hurdles to the controversial project.

“The environment minister [Melissa Price] has made a decision as I said that she would based on the best environmental science advice,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday.

“She has been waiting to receive that advice from Geoscience Australia and CSIRO and they have made recommendations … and she has made a decision consistent with the science advice provided by those agencies and her own department.

“I note that Mr Shorten is happy to say while he is up in Central Queensland today that he is happy to abide also by the advice of the scientists … I wait to see whether he says the same thing down in Victoria or elsewhere in the country.”

The decision follows intense pressure on the Morrison government from Queensland MPs to approve the project before the election.

The federal environment minister has given the green light to the controversial Adani Carmichael mine’s groundwater plan, taking it a step closer to operation.

Science agencies CSIRO and Geoscience Australia confirmed the Adani Carmichael mine’s revised groundwater plan met strict scientific requirements, Ms Price said on Tuesday.

“Following this independent assessment and the Department of Environment and Energy’s recommendation for approval, I have accepted the scientific advice and therefore approved the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael coal mine and rail infrastructure project under Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999,” she said.

This decision does not mean the project has final approval.

Further approvals are needed from the Queensland government before construction can start.

“To date, only 16 of 25 environmental plans have been finalised or approved by the commonwealth and Queensland governments with a further nine to be finalised,” Ms Price said.

“It must meet further stringent conditions of approval from the commonwealth before it can begin producing coal.”

She said the company had accepted several actions, including better monitoring of the Doongmabulla Springs, tighter corrective action triggers if there are any groundwater impacts, and more scientific modelling within two years of the start of mining.

Ms Price said the government would not provide any financial support to the mine or to its rail project, she said.

The controversial mine proposal has become a hot topic for the Coalition, with Queensland MPs agitating for Ms Price to announce her decision before the election is called.

There were reports earlier this week that Liberal senator James McGrath, who famously helped bring down former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, had said he would publicly call on Ms Price to resign unless she approved the groundwater management plan.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the pressure on Ms Price could amount to bullying – and could land the case in court.

Bullying of Environment Minister could land Adani decision in court: After I heard some Govt MPs were threatening the Minister to approve Adani I sought urgent advice from the Parliamentary Library on whether the bullying could give rise to a legal challenge. The answer is YES pic.twitter.com/qNwdQHQ86Z

— 💚🌏 Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) April 9, 2019

Her view was backed up by environmental lawyers. Jo-Anne Bragg, the CEO of the Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland, told the ABC that lawyers had “their antennae up” on the issue.

“Such a political threat puts a cloud over Minister Price’s possible decisions on Adani,” she said.

“That’s the sort of cue that would cause us to really dig in and look at the evidence and basis of any decision that she’d make.”

Earlier, Mr Morrison said the decision on Adani would be made by “ministers listening to scientists, not senators listening to themselves”.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan attended a shed meeting in Central Queensland on Tuesday with Dawson MP George Christensen to reiterate the government’s support for coal mining.

“This isn’t just about one project or one mine – the Labor Party wants to get rid of all coal mines and all coal mining jobs,” he said afterwards.

“The Liberal-Nationals Coalition government backs Queensland resources workers and Queensland’s coal mining communities.”

Anti-Adani protesters disrupted a business lunch speech by Mr Morrison in Brisbane on Monday.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said Ms Price was being bullied in what he described as a “failure of ethics in government at the highest level”.

Mr Shorten said in government he would be guided by the “best science and the law of the land” on the Adani approvals but no taxpayer money would go to the project.

-with AAP