Adani Carmichael mine: Palaszczuk accused of xenophobia as funding options dry up
FEDERAL Resources Minister Matt Canavan has been branded “unhinged” after he accused Queensland’s Labor government of racism and xenophobia over its stance on the Adani coal mine, which puts the project “on a knife edge”.
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FEDERAL Resources Minister Matt Canavan has been branded “unhinged” after he accused Queensland’s Labor government of racism and xenophobia over the Adani coal mine.
Mr Canavan sensationally accused Annastacia Palaszczuk and Federal Labor of “buckling to racism and xenophobia” in pulling their support for the Adani mine, saying they would not have an issue if the proponent was British.
A spokesperson for federal Labor leader Bill Shorten hit back saying: “Matt is clearly unhinged and lashing out.”
Labor will return to power with the Adani coal project – its biggest hope for jobs and the economy – running out of financing options after a sustained attack from environmental groups.
The $21 billion Adani megamine and its swag of jobs is on a knife edge after China effectively said the project did not stack up.
The massive project has now suffered from Australian banks walking away from funding it after a shaming campaign by activists, followed by the Premier promising to veto federal tax funds of up to $1 billion going towards the project, raising sovereign risk.
Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr has teamed up with the Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins to lobby China’s Government and industry against the mine, which needs about $3 billion in loans.
That led to the Chinese embassy telling Mr Cousins that because of a lack of commercial feasibility an institution in the early stages of negotiating with Adani had terminated the talks and no other institution had made a commitment to it.
“It’s dead in the water,’’ Mr Cousins said.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Senator Canavan said the project was on “a knife edge” because of Labor backflips.
He also accused Bob Carr of double standards, saying the former NSW premier did not have an issue when the Chinese spent $3.5 billion on the Yangcoal acquisition in NSW, but wants to stop jobs and investment in Queensland.
Asked if he believed whether Labor would support the mine if the proponent was British, he said, “absolutely”.
“The Labor Party has a long and colourful history of xenophobia and racism and this is just the latest chapter in that book,’’ Senator Canavan said.
“(Annastacia Palaszczuk) fed and responded to it. They haven’t made this decision because they felt it was the best thing for Queensland. They have made the decision because they have buckled to an undercurrent of xenophobia that exists in the community.
“It it was a British company building this rail line (Adani has applied for a concessional loan under the Turnbull Government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to build a rail line to transport coal to port) or the Australian Government building the rail line, I don’t think we would have the controversy it has attracted. It’s down to that it an Indian company.’
“This project is on a knife edge and the people of regional Queensland deserve to know what the Labor Party will do.’’
A spokesperson for Mr Shorten said: “Matt is clearly unhinged and lashing out. Bill isn’t responding to this sort of rubbish from a bloke who teams up with One Nation every chance he gets.”
Industry sources said the cancellation of negotiations at such an early stage meant that China would not have known much of the detail of the project to make an assessment one way or the other and the reasons could be political.
“Beijing has taken note of your concern,’’ the email said.
“It has learned that a Chinese entity was approached by Adani Group for initial phase communication on the Carmichael Coal project, but without conclusion of any binding agreement for co-operation.
“Due to the absence of commercial feasibility the Chinese entity concerned has terminated the negotiation process.
“No Chinese banking institution has made any financing commitment to the project.’’
Queensland Resources Council boss Ian Macfarlane was scathing in his comments on Mr Carr for undermining the project calling his actions a disgrace, but said he was “confident it will still succeed’’.
“The critical mass of Adani will allow them to still succeed,’’ he said.
“The crazy thing is if they don’t get the coal from Australia they will get it from somewhere else and it will be dirtier.’’
Other mining industry sources said the project was not dead and there were other financing options such as selling a stake in the project.
And Adani has this week successfully refinanced about $500 million of debt over its Abbot Pt coal port, which is the export point for the mine.
That shows investor faith in the port’s viability and the company’s ability to pay the debt.
Adani had a December deadline for its financing of the megamine and has appeared to waver on that in recent weeks with its Australian chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj saying everything should be completed by March.
In response to questions about the project and Senator Canavan’s remarks, a Queensland Government spokesman said: “As the Premier has said repeatedly, this project needs to stack up on its own, and the proponents need get on with the job.’’
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill, a big supporter of the Adani project and the jobs it would bring to the city, yesterday said that she wished Mr Carr would work at attracting investment.
“If he wants to help grow regional Queensland and do things other than mining I would appreciate he went out and supported us with our funding for the lithium-ion battery plant,’’ Ms Hill said.
Originally published as Adani Carmichael mine: Palaszczuk accused of xenophobia as funding options dry up
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