CLIMATE ZEALOT HAS COAL HISTORY

IF only the coal company Oliver Yates chaired had done what he now demands as the climate-crusading candidate for Kooyong.

Yates, running against Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, is one of the “independent” candidates challenging Liberal MPs who are actually supported by the far-Left GetUp!, and pushing its global warming cause.

Last week he issued his latest green edict: “I want companies to disclose all environmental breaches before the chairman’s report, on their annual report.”

Hmm, interesting. I wonder why Linc Energy never thought of it. Yates joined Linc Energy’s board in October 2010, having bought nearly $500,000 in shares, and the following month became acting chairman.

Three months before he joined, Linc sold the Galilee coal fields to Adani for the project that Yates now says “lacks a social licence”.

The day after Yates quit, in November 2011, Linc announced it had bought a massive Polish deposit of brown coal, which Yates now likens to asbestos.

In between, Linc was also trying to make gas by setting fire to underground coal seams at Chinchilla, in Queensland.

Three earlier attempts had gone badly. Gas escaped to the surface and workers felt sick.

A District Court judge later said Linc’s experts “clearly advised the site was unsuitable”, yet Linc tried a fourth gassifier from February 2010 to February 2012, which includes Yates’ term as acting chairman. It failed again. The pipes clogged, guard wells failed, and workers saw “gas escaping in puddles”.

That was hidden from regulators: “At a time of a regulator attendance at the site, that was simply covered by some sort of crusher dust so that the bubbling could not be seen.”

The judge added: “The offences have resulted in a contamination of the groundwater system … The land also faced ongoing explosive and toxicity risks in relation to the escape of contaminants.”

He fined Linc $4.5 million for five breaches, including three before and one after Yates’ time.

Yates distances himself from “activities” that he says “occurred after I had left the company and had a limited association with”.

Besides: “I was director for less than a year, attending only two board meetings. (Company records say three.)

“I refuse to comment on matters before or after my involvement. This includes the sale to Adani, which I played no role in.” But this is GetUp!’s green candidate? Hypocrites.