Greens call on Siemens to drop Adani mine contract

On a letterhead embossed with the Australian Commonwealth coat of arms, Greens leader Richard Di Natale has written to a international tech giant now contracted to the controversial Adani megamine.

GREENS leader Richard Di Natale has extraordinarily written to a German-based chief executive to pressure him to abandon his planned contract with Adani, warning the company will face “reputational damage” if its deals with the “carbon time bomb”.

On a letterhead embossed with the Australian Commonwealth coat of arms, Senator Di Natale has used his parliamentary position to warn ­global powerhouse Siemens to consider the “implications” of doing business with Adani.

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The correspondence to chief executive Joe Kaeser and Jeff Connolly, the boss of the business’s Australian arm, was sent just hours after Adani revealed Siemens had been awarded a contract to deliver rail signalling systems for the Carmichael Rail Network.

It follows The Courier-Mail’s revelations last week Siemens staff were advised not to wear clothing that could identify them as an employee after the company was targeted by Stop Adani extremists protesting at Siemens’ Brisbane headquarters.

It also comes just months after the Greens-supported Bob Brown convoy to Clermont to stop the project, and Queensland jobs, backfired.

Senator Di Natalie urged Mr Kaeser and Mr Connolly not to proceed with the contract and consider Australia’s bushfires and the planet.

“In order to stay below 1.5C of warming, or to have any hope of not exceeding 2C, this massive coalmine simply cannot go ahead,’’ he wrote.

“With a peak capacity of 60 million tonnes of coal per year, Adani’s mine is a carbon time bomb that the world cannot afford.

“As I write, the east coast of Australia has been inundated with megafires of which we have never seen the likes of before.

“Our most populated city, Sydney, has been covered in smoke and ash for days with air quality 11 times above hazardous levels.

“This is all occurring at just 1C of warming.

“The International Energy Agency has said not one coal, oil or gas production facility can go ahead if we want to stay below 1.5C of warming.

“We write to ask that Siemens not provide goods and services for this dangerous project.”

Meanwhile, Adani has slammed Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese for telling the company to start creating jobs, saying hundreds of workers were already at the Galilee Basin mine and inviting him to visit.

An Adani spokeswoman said the mine had already created about 200 jobs at its Galilee Basin site, as well as hundreds more in offices in Townsville, Brisbane and Rockhampton.