Mayor slams decision to lift Adani contractor ban

MICHAEL DOYLE

TWEED Mayor Katie Milne says she is “appalled” by her council’s decision to overturn a ban on companies linked to the Adani mine 1300km away, and believes it will lead to “selfdestruction”.

A furious Cr Milne was one of two councillors to oppose a motion at a council meeting on Thursday night, which asked for the shire to stop blacklisting firms who had contracts with the Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland.

Councillors James Owen, Pryce Allsop, Warren Polglase and Reece Byrnes backed the rescission, while Mayor Milne and Deputy Mayor Chris Cherry opposed it. Councillor Ron Cooper was absent.

Cr Milne believed the decision sent a message to the wider community about the region’s want for action on climate change.

“I am appalled we should be considering rescinding this motion,” she said. “We should support our community in keeping our planet safe.”

She said she knew some people did not take climate change seriously.

“But I am not one of those. “I think this is one of the biggest risks this community, country and world faces.

“I think there is every good reason why we shouldn’t be supporting this. It is self-destruction.”

Cr Owen, who was the driving force behind the rescission, told the chamber he believed the council was correcting a major error made in 2018.

“I voted against this when it first occurred, we should never be getting involved in this,” he said. “This is about council stopping people working with council because they are working on Adani.

“You just can’t do that. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Cr Byrnes said he was still personally opposed to the construction of the Adani mine, but did not believe the Tweed Shire should compromise creating jobs because of it.

Cr Cherry this week defended her stance to the Bulletin, saying her decision was based on her belief the Adani mine was financially fragile, and not ideologies.

“My continued support for this position is based on making financially responsible decisions for council,” she said.

“It would appear the Carmichael Mine project is financially extremely vulnerable.

“The fact that a large proportion of our community are ideologically opposed to the Carmichael mine and the predicted damage it may have on Australia’s greatest tourism asset, the Great Barrier Reef, is not the basis for my support for our procurement limitation on civil construction companies.”

BULLETIN VIEW, P66