Opinion: Des Houghton says the Queensland Premier is suffering from “coalphobia”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been MIA from a new central Queensland mine and it’s high time she went there, writes Des Houghton. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Ten years after the Adani mine was proposed, and nearly two years after it was approved, Annastacia Palaszczuk is still stubbornly refusing to visit one of the state’s most important projects.

Why is she pretending it is not there?

The central Queensland mine is too big to ignore, Premier.

Under the new name Bravus Mining and Resources, the workforce has jumped 1500 to 2000.

Adani wanted to start exporting by 2014, but the project was trapped in years of green “lawfare” condoned and supported by Palaszczuk.

Parliament heard government departments stacked with green activists were trying to kill the project.

Workers lay track for the 200km rail link to the export terminal near Bowen.

And in 2015 the then Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath approved a $1m taxpayer handout to the Environmental Defenders Office for “free legal advice” for those “seeking to protect the environment”.

I’m told Palaszczuk was flummoxed when teenage environmentalist Greta Thunberg received more than 70,000 “likes” on her tweet calling for people to #StopAdani.

So she dodged and weaved. No one quite knew where Palaszczuk stood. I still don’t.

Then Jackie Trad, her deputy, wounded her party by working tirelessly behind the scenes to block the mine.

The appalling delays by Palaszczuk and her ministers hurt rural and regional Queenslanders and cost the state around $230m a year in lost royalties. Labor lost seats in Queensland at the last federal election by refusing to back the mine.

Now the wait is almost over.

A significant milestone was reached recently when 2.5 million cubic metres of overburden was removed.

Bravus is now tantalisingly close to one of the richest coal beds on earth. This week a layer of rock was blasted away to reveal the prize. The mine will produce 10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year to generate affordable energy for impoverished communities in India still cooking on polluting dung fuel.

Keith Pitt says it is about time Palaszczuk got over her “coal phobia”.

The Member for Hinkler and the Minister for Resources says Bravus royalties and jobs will boost the economy for years.

“It is surprising that the Premier has not visited the mine project to recognise the company’s contribution,” Pitt said.

“Is Queensland Labor serious about its support for coal jobs in this state or is this just something they say at election time?

“I have no doubt that if it was the ‘Central Queensland Cross River Rail Project’, Adani would see a parade of Queensland Ministers coming to visit.”

Meanwhile, Adani has been named the world’s largest solar power generator.

Adani was praised for its rapid expansion into the renewable energy sector with a clean energy research group saying Adani Green Energy Limited would displace 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the life of its solar projects.

Track laying is well underway..

I am yet to hear the Premier or any Green groups congratulate the company.

Bravus says the Premier is welcome anytime. It is just getting on with the job. David Boshoff, the South African-born Bravus chief, recently signed $1.5 billion in contracts associated with the mine. He said 88 per cent of the contracts would be delivered in Queensland by Queenslanders.

“Track laying for the rail line is well underway as well, and we are using Australian steel, sleepers, girders and ballast to deliver the track,” he said.

Firms big and small benefit from the mine.

A Rockhampton firm is producing thousands of concrete sleepers for the 200km railway line to take the coal to the export terminal near Bowen.

A small family outfit Nu-Tank, also from Rocky won a $1m water storage contract.

Workers complete 14-day shifts and then have a seven-day break.

Boshoff said the first coal would be produced later this year.