Adani upset by ALP backflip

THE Queensland Government has dismissed Adani’s complaints about the impact of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s veto of a Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan.

It followed claims by the company that the Premier’s veto of the Federal Government loan had shaken the company and forced it to redo its financing for the mine, port and rail project in central North Queensland.

That has led to the company missing its own deadline to fund the more than $2.5 billion in debt it needs to build the project and also forced it to scrap an agreement with Downer Group to build the mine.

“Adani representatives themselves have claimed as far back as 2015 that the commercial viability of their project was not dependent on public funding and in fact started developing their project six years before the NAIF was established,’’ said a Palaszczuk Government spokesman.

“We are confident that even though the company has not met its own self-imposed financial close deadline, this will not deter the project as has been the case previously.’’

Adani Australia chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj said the company had found out about the briefing when Ms Palaszczuk announced it at a media conference one week into the state election campaign.

“No one is prepared for bad news. Obviously it shook us,’’ he said.

The company began work on the project in 2010 and has faced years of delays because of legal appeals from protesting activists.

Activist group Galilee Blockade took to social media yesterday to accuse Adani of being ‘sooks’ and said the company had so far failed to get funding or a project partner, and had not been able to finalise its indigenous land use agreement because of legal action launched by activist Adrian Burragubba.

But Mr Janakaraj said the public had to be able to see through the constant negativity from the activists.

“It’s sad it has been done that way. The activists have planned it that way and are using it to their advantage, and this is where people have to see through it and see what the motive is,” he said.

“Is it environmental or about the Great Barrier Reef? No, because all that has been taken care of by the way things are done in Australia.

“We are completely bound by those conditions and actions.”