Aurizon drops bid for federal loan to build Adani rail line

Aurizon officially drops bid for a federal concessional loan to build rail line that would have served Adani’s Carmichael mine.

Aurizon chief executive Andrew Harding. Picture: Tara Croser.

Aurizon has officially dropped its bid for a federal concessional loan to build a common-user rail line that would have served Adani’s Carmichael mine.

The rail freight company issued a statement this morning confirming it would withdraw its application to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) for funding to assist with a rail solution for the development of the Galilee Basin.

It comes after months of pressure on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who opted during the election to veto a loan for a similar application from Indian conglomerate Adani and promised no taxpayer funds would go towards supporting the mine.

Managing director and chief executive Andrew Harding said Aurizon would continue to support the development of the untapped basin but could not continue with its proposal due to the lack of progression on customer contracts.

“When developed it has the potential to provide a major boost to the national economy and create thousands of jobs in regional Queensland,” Mr Harding said.

“We believe Aurizon can play a key role in helping facilitate a multi-user, open access rail solution for the various new mines in the region.

“However, while we are in ongoing discussions with several Galilee Basin mine proponents we have not yet progressed to definitive contractual arrangements with any proponent.

“Our NAIF application is, in part, predicated on having customer contracts secured.

“Given this is unlikely to occur in the near future we believe it is prudent to withdraw the NAIF application.”

Mr Harding said the company had not given up on developing a rail solution to serve the Galilee Basin.

“If market circumstances change and our discussions with potential customers progress to commercial arrangements we will look at all possible financing arrangements to develop the rail solution,” he said.

Federal opposition spokesman for northern Australia, Jason Clare, last week said that no taxpayer money should go towards building the rail line, regardless of who was building it.

The status of the loan caused confusion last week at a senate economics references committee hearing into the governance of NAIF.

The committee was told Deputy Premier Jackie Trad had written to the NAIF to clarify the status of Aurizon’s application after she had been briefed that it was “inactive”.