Premier dismisses Adani’s concerns over mine approval process

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has shut down any possibility of sitting down with mining giant Adani to discuss the approval process for its Carmichael site.

ADANI will not score a meeting with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to discuss its Galilee Basin project until after its approvals have been finalised.

Ms Palaszczuk today dismissed the Indian miner’s concerns about what it sees as hoops it is having to jump through to get its Carmichael coal mine approved.

Adani last week estimated the project could be delayed up to five years after the Department fo Environment demanded the company count the precise number of black-throated finches on its 44,700-hectare site among other conditions.

Same bird but different approach to mine approval

Ms Palaszczuk said there was nothing extraordinary about the process Adani was being put through.

“These are processes that every resource company wanting to invest in Queensland has to go through,” she said.

“These processes are just the normal processes of government.”

Adani has written to the Premier with its concerns.

When asked if she would meet with the company, Ms Palaszczuk said not until after the project had been “ticked off”.

“We have different agencies, I have ministers that are available to meet.

“Once all the approvals are ticked off then I meet with companies.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the timing of the Department of Environment’s meeting with Adani last week — in the middle of the Federal Election campaign — was a matter for the department.

“This is an independent regulator. We don’t decide the timing of when these are released.”