Adani mine’s future ‘in question’

Matt Canavan warns future of the Adani coal project is “called into question” because Senators refuse to sit extra day.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan is warning the future of the $16.5bn Adani coal project has been “called into question” because of the refusal of Senators to sit an extra day and “spend another night in Canberra.”

A motion to extend sitting hours to tomorrow was defeated this morning in the Senate, delaying a final vote on critical amendments to the Native Title Act until the return of the upper house in June.

A final investment decision by Adani on whether to proceed with the project had been expected by the end of the month. The Australian understands the Indian conglomerate is still aiming to keep to that timeline in the face of concerns it would respond to the parliamentary impasse by deferring any final decision.

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Senator Canavan today repeatedly raised this prospect, saying the creation of thousands of jobs could be thrown into jeopardy.

A map showing the location of the proposed Carmichael mine south of Charters Towers in Queensland. Source: Adani

He blamed Bill Shorten for trying to sabotage the coalmine, warning the refusal to sit an extra day was simply an attempt by the Labor Party to manage an internal conflict between their “Green collars and their blue collars.”

“I have spoken to Adani this morning and I certainly think the actions of the federal Australian Labor Party have called into question this project,” he said. “There is the risk that investments in this country will be delayed, deferred and may not happen if we can’t be seen to appropriately and quickly deal with these issues as they arise.”

Earlier this morning, Attorney-General George Brandis failed to obtain Senate backing for a government motion to extend the Senate’s sitting hours to tomorrow.

The motion was aimed at allowing Senators extra time to pass important amendments to the Native Title Act following the Federal Court’s controversial McGlade decision in February.

The motion was defeated by 35 votes to 33 after Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team combined.

Senator Brandis told The Australian: “The bill with the amendments the government is proposing are the result of a very exhaustive process of consultation with all the stakeholders but in particular the representative bodies.”

“We have arrived at a unanimous view among the representative bodies that the bill is in the shape they want it to be. And they have called on the parliament to consider passing it as soon as possible.”

“How absurd that when the government and the opposition and the unanimous view of all the representative Native Title bodies as well as other stakeholders, such as industry, want to achieve the same outcome ... we should deny their request to us to deal with the matter urgently.”

The outcome in the Senate means the government has now been denied the extra time it wanted to try and close a legal loophole exposed in the Federal Court’s McGlade decision.

The Federal Court’s decision effectively required the unanimous sign-off of an indigenous clan to approve a “land use agreement” instead of the previous requirement of majority support.

An indigenous land use agreement or ILUA is a voluntary agreement entered into between a native title group and other entities about how their land and waters will be used.

The government is keen to amend the Native Title Act because the McGlade decision resulted in the freezing of all new agreements across Australia. This threw a spanner in the works for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin which was prevented from legally registering a key land use agreement.

The Senate impasse now looms as one of the key obstacles to the mine going ahead.

But Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus argues there is no pressing reason to quickly pass the Native Title Amendments through the parliament.

In a letter sent to Senator Brandis yesterday (May 10 2017) Mr Dreyfus argues the government had attempted to “rush” the passage of the amendments and had previously rammed it through the Senate committee process.

“It is unfortunate that the government has not provided the Senate with sufficient time to debate and pass this legislation,” Mr Dreyfus said. “The government claims that this bill must be passed this week to avoid legal calamities for existing ILUAs is unsound.”

In a previous letter sent to Mr Turnbull on May 1 and obtained by The Australian the Labor Party committed to “work with the government to enable the swift passage of this legislation in the next sitting of parliament.”

The letter was signed by Mr Shorten, Mr Dreyfus and the opposition assistant spokesman for indigenous affairs, Pat Dodson,

Mr Dreyfus claims this commitment referred to the ‘Winter sitting” of parliament which he said “commenced on Tuesday May 9 and which concludes on June 22.”

But Senator Brandis today accused the Labor Party of reneging on the commitment in the May 1 letter, telling The Australian that Mr Dreyfus was “playing games” by not passing the amendments this week.

Senator Brandis said Labor’s refusal to support the motion to extend the Senate’s sitting hours to Friday was a “flagrant breach of their undertaking to enable the parliament to deal with the legislation as soon as possible.”