Senators accuse Shorten of backing away from Adani DOUBT OVER BILL
TWO regional Queensland senators have called on Bill Shorten to clarify Labor’s support for the Adani Carmichael mine after he said the party was “increasingly sceptical”.
Mr Shorten made the comments while launching ACTU boss Ged Kearney’s campaign as the party’s candidate in the Victorian seat of Batman.
“The world coal market doesn’t appear great economics for opening up the newest, biggest coal mine in the southern hemisphere. We’ve had two years of bad coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef ... it’s under pressure since the environmental approvals were granted,” he said.
LNP senator Ian Macdonald has invited Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill to co- sign a letter to Mr Shorten asking him to confirm Labor’s support for the mine project in the Galilee Basin.
“Are you suggesting that a future Shorten Labor Government would review or overturn Commonwealth approvals issued to Adani for its mine, rail and port project in North Queensland?” Senator Macdonald wrote.
The senator said he was concerned Mr Shorten would sacrifice future employment in Townsville to appease voters in the upcoming Batman byelection.
“People in Batman don’t care about employment in Townsville … I think it’s appalling that Mr Shorten should be using it as a bargaining chip in Melbourne,” he said.
Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan accused Labor of “selling out” regional Queensland. “Is it just a coincidence that Bill Shorten is pulling support for a Queensland mining project because he now faces a by- election against the Greens in Melbourne,” he said.
Senator Canavan said there were “thousands of jobs” on the line. “The Queensland Government must come clean as soon as possible about what it intends to do about other possible investments in the Galilee Basin.
“Why aren’t they helping to attract investment rather than doing everything they can to push it away,” he said.
Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole said Labor’s position on Adani had “always been very clear”.
“If ( the mine) stacks up on both environmental and financial fronts it will go ahead,” she said.
Ms O’Toole said Mr Shorten’s comments about Adani related to allegations published by The Guardian that the mining giant had altered a lab report when appealing an environmental fine.
“Shorten was talking about allegations of falsified reports. If that’s the case, it’s very serious and needs to be investigated,” she said.
The Guardian report claimed Adani submitted the altered report while appealing a $ 12,000 fine for contamination of sensitive wetlands on the beach at Abbot Point after Cyclone Debbie in 2017.
The mining company hit back at the allegations in a statement yesterday.
“Adani Australia and Abbot Point Bulk Coal categorically denies any wrongdoing,” it said. THE State Government has been accused of “muddying the waters” with semantics about the status of a loan to build a rail line into the Galilee Basin.
A proposal by Aurizon for a loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility ( NAIF) to construct the line was the subject of intense debate this week due to conflicting reports about the active status of the application.
LNP senator Ian Macdonald said Queensland Treasurer Jackie Trad was “cleverly trying to confuse the public” by shifting the Aurizon loan debate towards NAIF’s administrative procedures.
“NAIF is not the environmental guardian of Australia and should be able to make commercial decisions without facing intimidating tactics that confuse the public,” Senator Macdonald said.
Ms Trad said it was “incumbent” on NAIF to advise the Government what it means when it says a project is inactive, while Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole said it would be “really good” if the chief executive of NAIF “started working with relevant government bodies”.
“NAIF’s been a very big disappointment to Townsville,” Ms O’Toole said.