Adani chief David Boshoff laughs off questions on Labor’s attitude to mine

As Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine takes shape in central Queensland, the company’s new boss says not Labor Minister has visited the site – but that the door is always open.

The new chief of controversial coal company Adani has jokingly offered to show Palaszczuk Government ministers around the Carmichael Mine site if they were interested in the job-generating project.

“Anyone can come and see the progress,” Adani’s David Boshoff said, as he laughed off questions about why the Government continued to ignore the massive project.

Relations between the Indian-based company and the Labor administration soured when the Government attempted to halt the approval process over the black-throated finch management plan.

The issue morphed into a massive Federal election issue, forcing Annastacia Palaszczuk to set a deadline for when her departments would make decisions to approve the mine.

There has been no visit to the site by a Labor Minister and the last mention of Adani in an official Government press release was in September last year by former treasurer Jackie Trad.

Mr Boshoff said activist activity to disrupt the mine’s progress had halted during the coronavirus crisis and he was unperturbed about it resuming during the looming state election.

“The state election is not something that is going to impact us,” he said. “We have got all the approvals and we are focusing on execution.”

Mr Boshoff, who started his career in South Africa, said the high environmental standards applied to the Carmichael Mine had given the company an edge on its competitors.

“It is certainly a very high standard, we are proud to be able to deliver the project to those high standards and it is very different to other environments that I have worked in and certainly with our competitors,” he said.