State Government continues hide and seek tactic on mine issue

It was no accident that Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers today held press conferences before approval for Adani’s black-throated finch management plan was made public. It’s the same hide-and-seek approach they’ve been playing for months, writes Steven Wardill.

IT wasn’t an accident that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers today ensured they held press conferences before Adani’s black-throated finch management plan was publicly released.

This is the same hide-and-seek approach that the Palaszczuk Government has been playing for months with Adani and its contentious Carmichael coal mine.

First it was the “independent regulator” who was responsible for the timeline and the politicians couldn’t get in the way. Then it was all in the hands of “independent experts”.

And when it was convenient, the Government tried to blame Adani for delaying its own mine.

It took a seismic shift in voter sentiment at last month’s Federal election for it to dawn on the Palaszczuk Government that it could delay no longer.

Now the second-term Labor administration desperately needs the Adani issue to go away.

By setting deadlines for the decisions on Adani’s final management plans and then disappearing, the Government hopes it can get the mine approved but not be seen as being responsible for it.

It gives the regions the mine that they are demanding while trying to avoid any fallout in inner-city areas where the project is deeply unpopular with some people.

Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad at a press conference earlier this week. Picture: Nigel Hallett

However, by intervening in the wake of the election the Palaszczuk Government has exposed how it was playing politics all along with Adani’s approval process.

In the regions they’ll realise the Government only got the mine going after being motivated by self-interest.

And those who oppose the mine and use it as a proxy for the climate change debate will now have more ammunition than ever to continue their campaign.

In the end, the only deadline that really matter is October 31, 2020, which is the date of the next Queensland election.

The Government will be hoping that by then the Adani issue has subsided because that’s one date they cannot avoid.

Originally published as State Government continues hide and seek tactic on mine issue