Queensland Resources Council chief executive labels anti-Adani activists anarchists

A USUALLY polite club lunch of business people in Brisbane has erupted with claims of anarchy, lies and fake news.

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THE usually polite Rural Press Club lunch in Brisbane erupted yesterday with claims of anarchy, lies and fake news surrounding the Adani project.

At an unusually fiery function, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane described the anti-Adani activists as anarchists who refused to accept a legitimate approval and were bent on destroying the industry.

He said sections of the media had fallen in line with the myths they spread.

Mr Macfarlane said there were more than 4000 activists and 3500 activist groups with a combined income of more than $100 million and their voices were drowning those of law-abiding companies.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane described the anti-Adani activists as anarchists. Picture: Annette Dew

He singled out the ABC and Fairfax over their stories relating to claims of pollution from Adani’s Abbot Point terminal.

Mr Macfarlane used two photographs spread by activists, one showing blackened water flowing from the coal terminal into the wetlands and the other showing beaches around Abbot Point covered with a black material.

“We were led to believe by the media that was pollution by the coal industry of that wetland. It’s not the case at all. The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection actually did the water tests and found there was no pollution from coal in those ponds.’’

He said the second photo of beaches covered in black material was “a complete fake’’.

“The reality is it is magnetite. It’s why we have an island up there called Magnetic Island,’’ he said.

“That is the sort of thing activists will continue to do to discredit not just industry but the agricultural industry and economic development that goes on in our regions.

“Last week’s rollout of fake news by the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC was just the most recent in a long line of propaganda published by various news outlets.’’

But Mr Macfarlane said that good journalism wasn’t dead and that the reason behind no fact-checking was an under-resourced newsroom.

“But the cynic in me sees a pattern of behaviour from the same journalists at the same news outlets,’’ he said.

His speech was interrupted by grazier and chairman of the Basin Sustainability Alliance Lee McNicoll who has actively campaigned against the coal seam gas industry and its impact on groundwater.

Helen Bender, whose father George committed suicide after years of fighting gas companies, also joined the criticism.