Fed up miner Adani says eco-warrior theft of secrets costing millions
Militant protesters advised by a team of ex-military experts are costing Adani millions in skyrocketing security, insurance and construction budgets by holding up construction of one of the worlds largest coal mines, a court has heard. Here’s how it’s claimed they’re doing it.
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Relentless protesters advised by a team of ex-military and a psychologist are costing mining giant Adani millions of dollars, while holding up construction with dangerous PR stunt and shame campaigns, a court has heard.
Skyrocketing security, insurance and construction budgets have blown out due to the alleged undercover infiltration of contractors’ workforces with greenie spies, according to court documents.
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The Indian mining company has told the Supreme Court that it believes the man responsible for the “Dob in Adani” campaign and infiltration campaign which urges workers to leak sensitive details on construction plans to green protesters, is Brisbane man Ben Pennings.
Pennings is a former Brisbane Lord Mayoral candidate who has sailed on the Rainbow Warrior II, sung for the Dalai Lama and worked for The Big Issue magazine, Greenpeace and The Wilderness Society.
Adani has asked the court to force Pennings to pull down his campaign from his social media and website and stop using tips from whistleblowers to use intense pressure to thwart construction because it’s costing it millions when contractors sever their ties with the miner.
Adani has also asked the court to block Pennings from threatening to unleash his rag-tag squad of Galilee Blockade protesters to intimidate Adani contractors who defy threats by continuing to work for the mining giant.
This case comes just days after Adani failed in its bid to get the green light from a court to secretly sought to raid Pennings home to seize “evidence”.
The court was told that activists who have targeted worksites more than 50 times are wreaking havoc and costing Adani time and money by using tactics such as locking gates, occupying worksites, blockading rail lines, chaining themselves to machines and clogging phone lines.
Adani must compensate its contractors when protester shenanigans cause loss and job disruption, and when contractors sever their ties with the company due to green-activist pressure, Adani has to pay the cost of hiring new ones, and prices on all new contracts are higher.
Already Adani is being slugged with higher costs for work by rookie mining construction companies when the industry heavyweights are forced out.
The biggest blow came in December 2017 when key contractor Downer EDI pulled out of a $2.6b deal to build and operate the mine after blockades of dozens of Downer sites around the country including its city offices.
It included blocking Downer’s trucks and construction equipment at its Woolloongabba site in 2017.
Downer’s exit was brutal on Adani, causing the capital cost of its coal production per ton to skyrocket by at least 15 per cent after it was forced to scale down the Carmichael mine output from 30 million tonnes per annum to 10 million tonnes per annum, court documents state.
Contractors including cement producer Wagners, which has the tender to build the mine’s airport, and rail-line builder Aurizon have also been targeted by protesters.
Adani also concedes that they paid earthworks contractor BMD Constructions $37,579 when bus company Greyhound pulled out of a deal to ferry staff to the site under activist pressure, and they paid $49,000 to find a new drilling contractor to replace Aecom who dropped out in January after activists picketed their Sydney and Melbourne offices.
Adani also forked out for new gates for Townsville company iPex Pipelines after they were targeted last year and its insurance premiums are 400 per cent higher partially due to the withdrawal by companies like global reinsurer Aspen Re, which insured early construction works.
Adani’s security and activist manager Michael Heap says in court documents that continual targeting by activists has blown out Adani’s security budget from $1m to $5m.
Adani alleges that Pennings set up the Galilee Blockade in 2015 and he has been using a team of advisers including ex-military experts who have worked in logistics and planning from the US and Australian Army, as well as an IT guru from Bardon and a psychologist, and recruits followers online using social media and coverage in left-leaning media.
Advisers include US Army veteran Ronnie Wright, from Brisbane who is now chairman of organic produce grower Northey Street City Farm, and Townsville based Cindy Eiritz, an Australian Army veteran with logistics expertise from her work in East Timor and a psychologist helping to support activists “to maintain their vitality and motivation”.
Having initially targeted banks, then insurers to boycott Adani, Pennings tells his followers online that he needs them to help harass contractors.
“We will target Adani premises, infrastructure, events and executives. We will take away their supporters one by one and force them to give up their mining licence”, the Galilee Blockade website said in July 2017.
“Some of these actions will be completely legal. In others people will risk arrest,” he wrote on his website.
Pennings, who lives in quiet suburban Aspley in Brisbane’s north, has actively touted for dirt on the company, asking for anonymous tips on political donations, fundraisers or intel from public relations and lobbying firms.
“We will … send information to the appropriate authorities if Adani is breaking the law,” his website stated in 2017, court documents state.
Adani’s lawyer told the court that while several green groups have been protesting against the mine, they believe only Penning’s Galilee Blockade “actively seeks” secret data about contractors which is only held on its encrypted server or known by Adani staff or its contractors.
On Friday Pennings told the court there was no evidence he had any confidential information.
The case was in court on Friday and a decision is due to be handed down in coming weeks.