Mayor takes case to India Hill to push city’s FIFO hub claim
MAYOR Jenny Hill will travel to India to meet Adani leaders and put forward the city’s case to secure the FIFO hub for the $ 21 billion Carmichael Coal Project.
Cr Hill was one of five regional Queensland mayors chosen to join Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in meetings with the leadership of Adani in India next month.
Townsville’s rival to securing the FIFO hub, Rockhampton, has also been invited along with mayors from Whitsunday, Mackay and Isaac.
Cr Hill said she would ensure the benefits of Townsville being the FIFO hub were put to Adani.
“I will be taking up Premier’s offer,” she said.
“I think it’s important Townsville puts its case forward directly to the chairman ( Adani founder Gautam Adani),” she said.
“We will be making sure we put the best case forward. the
“Of course competition is going to be tough and we need to be there to put our case forward to ensure our voice is heard. “We’ve got the capacity to do this work and we’ll show the chairman we can do it.”
Adani has already confirmed with the Premier that the regional headquarters and remote operations centre will be in Townsville and rail and port operations headquarters will be in Bowen.
Townsville and Rockhampton have been shortlisted for the FIFO hub with a decision expected later this year to coincide with the start of early works.
The Premier said the visit to India would be part of her trade mission, which would also include Singapore for trade meetings and London for 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games activities.
“The Carmichael Coal mine- rail- port project offers the potential for thousands of new jobs across regional Queensland,” she said.
“I met with Mr Adani in Townsville late last year and secured commitments on regional employment and the use of local labour rather than workers on 457 visas.
“We have delivered our commitments and now we look forward to the thousands of new jobs – direct and indirect – to be delivered from the Carmichael Coal project.”
The Premier said she would use the visit to assess stronger trade and investment for the Queensland Government.