Premier seeks meeting to reach time frame for Adani approvals
A former Labor sport minister is the latest party elder to unload on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for her bungling of the Adani issue. And he’s questioned her dedication to Queensland, contrasting it with that of the mighty Maroons.
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FORMER Goss government minister Bob Gibbs has repeated his call for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to take decisive action on Adani and urged her to show leadership or get out of the way and let someone else take the reins.
“You only get a certain amount of political capital in politics. Hers is basically gone and at the moment she is into overdraft and very soon will be in bankruptcy. And when you are in at that stage you have got no way out,” he said.
“You have got federal politicians who are saying the same thing about the Adani issue. You have got our state members in central and north Queensland all saying the same thing now.
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“They are coming out because they realise the implications, the implications for them down the track and yet she just seems to be turning a blind eye to it.
“I reiterate what I said the other day. Make the tough call, get it off the books otherwise it is going to be a political albatross around their neck right up to the next election.”
He said if the Government waited too long to approve the mine they would be “that up to their necks in the mire, they’ll have no chance of getting out of it”.
Mr Gibbs slammed the Premier’s decision to continue her planned trade mission to Japan and the US next week, insisting she should cancel it and spend more time in regional Queensland.
“She has got bushfires raging all around her, about to turn into an inferno and decides to get out of the state,” he said.
“Next week we’ve got State of Origin in this state. The people who get selected to play Origin get there for four reasons. They are able to rise to the occasion. They showed great toughness. In the heat of the game they are required to make tough decisions.
“They lead by example. And they are totally committed to Queensland.
“Now it is time that she adapted every one of those mantles to herself and her Cabinet and showed some professionalism or realise that the game’s over and hand the leadership to somebody else.
“This quick little road show around the state, well I suggest what she do is stay at home. On Origin night she should be out in one of those communities, the mining communities in particular, where they will gather and watch the game. She should sit among them and ask them what they think of her and the Government and get some real honest feedback.
“It just doesn’t seem to resonate with her what’s happening here.”
PREMIER’S SPECTACULAR BACKFLIP
Ms Palaszczuk has spectacularly backflipped on her government’s forced delays of approvals of the Adani coal mine, in the wake of federal Labor’s wipe-out in Queensland.
Mr Palaszczuk rushed to regional Queensland today where - donning a hard hat at the Hay Point port - she announced she wants Adani, the co-ordinator-general and the environment department to meet tomorrow to come up with a time frame to resolve the Carmichael Mine’s final environmental approvals.
But Adani CEO Lucas Dow believes it is ‘nothing more than a delaying tactic’.
Until now, Ms Palaszczuk has refused to intervene in her government’s moves to delay the project up to five years.
In fact, she and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad have refused to answer Adani’s written requests to meet over state government forced delays on the proposed mine.
In the past six months, extraordinary reviews of Adani’s management plans - following state and federal environment approvals - have threatened to blow out the start of construction of the mine by five years.
But with the Adani fiasco blamed for Labor’s federal election bloodbath in Queensland, Ms Palaszczuk changed her tune today.
“I am expecting a definitive time frame by Friday,” she said.
She said she wanted the time frame agreed to by Friday, acknowledging the Queensland public was “fed-up”.
“I sense the frustration of the community. I am frustrated. I think everyone has had a gutful quite frankly,” Ms Palaszczuk, who travelled to Mackay this morning amid a regional MP rebellion, said.
“Very clearly enough is enough. This needs to be sorted out.”
The Premier has been under pressure internally from MPs and the CFMEU as well as from Federal Labor to put an end to the saga for months.
The Courier-Mail revealed last week that regional MPs had confronted the Premier about the issue at a pre-parliament caucus, pleading with her to find a solution.
They fear they will lose their jobs.
That pressure intensified after the weekend’s shocking results at ballot boxes across regional Queensland.
Her decision to announce the coordinator-general’s involvement was immediately met with cynicism from Adani CEO Lucas Dow.
He said he would meet with the coordinator-general and the environment department tomorrow but if the environmental management plans were not finalised within two weeks he believed the Premier’s about face was “just another delaying tactic”.
“We have been asking for clarity of process and timing from the Queensland Labor Government in relation to the approvals of our outstanding management plans for more than seven months now,” he said in a statement.
“We are looking forward to receiving a call from the Coordinator General so we can meet first thing tomorrow morning, and at that meeting I will be seeking the timeline for approving the two outstanding management plans come to a conclusion within the next two weeks.
“Any timeframe for a decision on these outstanding management plans longer than the next two weeks is nothing more than another delaying tactic by the Queensland Labor Government designed to delay thousands of jobs for regional Queenslanders.
“The Queensland Labor Government has been reviewing these management plans for over two years now.”
Federal Resources Minister Matthew Canavan ridiculed Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement, describing it as pythonesque.
“If the Premier says today she’s fed up with the lack of progress on Adani the Premier needs to answer how long has she been fed up with her own Government and why hasn’t she done something about it before today,” he said.
“What she is saying today is not very much at all. What she’s saying is she wants to have a meeting. The Premier has announced today that the solution to jobs in north and central Queensland is to have a meeting. This is something that is out of the Life of Brian, this is something that is pythonesque. It’s beyond a farce now.”
JACKIE TRAD CONSULTED ON PREMIER’S CALL FOR ADANI INTERVENTION
THE PREMIER’S decision to call for the co-ordinator-general’s intervention in the Adani mine was made in full consultation with her deputy Jackie Trad.
Her statement is a major about face for the Government. It comes just days after the she and Ms Trad insisted there was nothing unusual with the approvals process for the Galilee Basin mine.
Ms Palaszczuk said she believed the co-ordinator-general was the best person to intervene and resolve the Adani approvals mess.
“The co-ordinator general has wide-ranging powers. The co-ordinator general has the authority to resolve matters and that is why I have taken this step,” she said.
The Premier also used the press conference to apologise for Federal Labor and pledge to represent regional Queensland in a pitch aimed at both appeasing her angry regional MPs and angry voters,
“I am really sorry that Labor let you down. I am really sorry that happened.
“I value the work that you do, every single day you work in a whole variety of industries.
“And I know that you want the best for your family. I want the best for your family as well.
“I represent a very working class electorate. I grew up knowing how important it was.
“At the end of the day it’s about putting food on the table and making sure that your children can aspire to be whatever they want to be.
“And that if your family goes to hospital or someone gets sick, that we are providing the health services for your family right across this state.
“We are up to this challenge. We work every day focusing on jobs.”
FRECKLINGTON SLAMS PREMIER’S ADANI MOVE
OPPOSITION Leader Deb Frecklington said today’s announcement was a slap in the face for Queenslanders who were screaming out for jobs.
“The only people to blame on the Adani project are Annastacia Palaszczuk herself and her job-destroying ministers who continually cynically move the goalposts on this project,’ she said.
“This isn’t a decision, this is a meeting.”
She said Ms Palaszczuk had to explain why the environmental approval for the Adani project had dragged on for eight years but other projects were waved through in less time.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk is weak and incapable of leading this state,” she said.
“Her government is in crisis, her MPs are in revolt and it’s always someone else’s fault with Annastacia Palaszczuk, well no one is buying the Premier’s pathetic excuses any longer.
MATT CANAVAN SAYS THE PREMIER IS SAYING ‘NOTHING MUCH’
RESOURCES Minister Matt Canavan has responded by saying the Premier’s announcement in Mackay today was “pythonesque”.
Mr Canavan said north and central Queensland wanted action not talk.
“If the Premier says today she’s fed up with the lack of progress on Adani the Premier needs to answer how long has she been fed up with her own Government and why hasn’t she done something about it before today,” he said.
“What she is saying today is not very much at all. What she’s saying is she wants to have a meeting. The Premier has announced today that the solution to jobs in north and central Queensland is to have a meeting. This is something that is out of the Life of Brian, this is something that is pythonesque. It’s beyond a farce now.”
Mr Canavan said he had been drafted in at the last minute to speak at the Austmine Conference in Brisbane after Ms Palaszczuk and senior ministers scattered across regional Queensland today to show their presence in areas that swung heavily to the LNP in last Saturday’s federal election.
Mr Canavan said he was happy to plug the hole in the schedule but questioned why the Government would snub the mining industry.
“I got the call yesterday afternoon that some State Government ministers had pulled out (of the conference) and I thought well I’m free I’ll come down and fill the gap,” he said.
“I’m a bit surprised the State Government’s not here because I’ve been seeing full page ads from them in all the daily newspapers the last few weeks saying how much they’re doing for the resources sector. I would have thought they could have spoken for hours here today on all the wonderful things they’re doing for your industry and the jobs they’re creating but anyway I’m happy to fill in.”
A State Government spokeswoman said the scheduled government representatives would be supporting the resources industry in regional Queensland “where the majority of resources jobs are”.
“(They) will attend the AustMine dinner on Wednesday evening,” she said.
Mr Canavan, who is still resources minister under caretaker arrangements, said he would not stop fighting until “common sense” was returned to State Government mining approvals process.
“From my perspective, for what I’m fighting for, what the people are fighting for, we haven’t won yet,” he said.
“We haven’t won because I’m not going to stop until we get some common sense back into the State Government here about approving projects.
“I’m not going to stop until at the very least we get this Adani mine approved and it’s got to happen now, the people have spoken.”
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