Queensland Election 2017: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk contradicts herself on Adani loan again
IT’S so hard to tell fact from fiction in the controversy over the taxpayer-funded loan for Adani that the Premier can’t even figure it out herself.
QLD Election
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PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk has again contradicted herself over her veto of Adani’s $1 billion loan, saying the Federal Government can still pay for it, if it wants to.
The Carmichael mine has dogged her campaign from day one, especially after her shock decision to veto Adani’s application for a federal loan to build a rail line between the Galilee Basin and Abbot Point Port.
She travelled to India in March this year to meet billionaire Gautam Adani and the Adani board to discuss the mine and further possible investment.
Ms Palaszczuk yesterday said that, during the visit, she told the board that the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan was a matter for the Commonwealth.
However, her opinion had since changed and she said the veto was part of her government’s policy since 2015 that no taxpayer money should go towards the $16 billion mine.
She did not say if she told the Adani board that she intended to veto its loan application.
“I said very clearly it was a Federal Government issue, it was a matter for the Federal Government, and it still is,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Asked how that fit in with her plan to veto the loan if re-elected, Ms Palaszczuk said: “If the Federal Government wants to pay for it, they can pay for it.”
The NAIF loan is a concessional loan through the Federal Government, but for constitutional reasons, states retain veto powers.
Ms Palaszczuk also declined to say what she would do regarding a rival proposal to build the rail line from Aurizon, which the State Government owned shares in.
She said her position on Aurizon’s proposal remained hypothetical as it had not come before the Cabinet Budget Review Committee. But neither had Adani’s proposal.
Her initial reason for the veto was a conflict of interest created by her partner Shaun Drabsch working on Adani’s loan application through his firm PwC, but she has since repositioned to say it had been Labor’s policy since 2015.
Not all ALP candidates remained on message.
Labor’s Kawana candidate Mark Moss declared he did not support the mine during an interview on ABC radio.
Ms Palaszczuk was joined by Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on the hustings while she campaigned in Maryborough yesterday.
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