Clive Palmer ‘sceptical’ on Galilee Basin coalmine approval
Clive Palmer says the political environment makes it difficult to develop new coal projects.
Clive Palmer says he is “sceptical” that his long-planned thermal coalmine in the Galilee Basin will go ahead because the political environment in Australia made it difficult to develop new coal projects.
He said it was a “sad thing for Australia” that the Waratah mine was being stymied by legal challenges from activist groups and cast doubt on whether the project would eventuate.
“I’m sceptical because if you take the Galilee Basin, for example, and you disregard my interests in the Galilee Basin, there are other projects there too.
“They have been pursuing approvals for 15 or 16 years. So that gives us a bad name. You should at least get a no in that timeframe,” he said.
“It can certainly go ahead for commercial reasons. But the environment in Australia is not to develop coal. And I am 67 now and relatively comfortable, I can get most of my financial and business needs met regardless. It is a sad thing for Australia.
“The environment to get approvals and government support, it seems to have gone. But if you take coalmining royalties off the Queensland government, they are bankrupt, they are in liquidation. That is the reality of it.”
Mr Palmer did say he was confident of getting approvals for a proposed metallurgical coalmine near Rockhampton.
“It is about 500 jobs in central Queensland,” he said.
Thermal coal is used for energy generation and metallurgical coal is used for the steelmaking process.
The Waratah mine, which may annually produce four times as much coal as Adani, was given federal environmental approvals in 2013 and conditional state approvals in 2019, subject to legal protests in the Land Court of Queensland.
In an Australia first, activist group Youth Verdict is arguing that the project breaches section 58(1) of Queensland’s newly created Humans Rights Act because the mine will contribute to climate change.
Mr Palmer’s Waratah Coal failed in an attempt to have the Youth Verdict case struck out, and hearings are scheduled to proceed in February 2022.
Senior lawyers say – based on the decision of the courts to hear a challenge to the mine on the grounds of breaching the Human Rights Act (2019) – there is likely to be more challenges to fossil fuel projects in Queensland on the basis of human rights.
“Because of this decision, it is likely that there will be an increase in the number of human rights-based objections to mining lease and environmental authority applications,” wrote Clayton Utz partner Mark Geritz last year when Waratah’s bid to strike out the human rights case against the company was quashed. “Mining project proponents should continue to monitor developments of this case.”
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said he expected another company to take over the lease of the proposed mine site if Mr Palmer walked away. “While I appreciate the Queensland Labor government has a bad record on its mine approvals process, other companies including Adani have overcome them,” Mr Pitt said.
“If Palmer decides not to proceed, I expect the state government to offer the lease to another company who will.”
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the body was working on a plan to reduce roadblocks for projects.
“This was a commitment the Queensland government made to the QRC at the election last year, and we have high expectations this plan will improve Queensland’s attractiveness to resources’ investors,” Mr Macfarlane said.
Mr Palmer said it would be a good thing for the environment if the hundreds of planned coal-fired power stations in China and Japan used Australian coal.
He claimed coal from the Galilee basin produced 40 per cent to 50 per cent less carbon emissions than coal from Indonesia.
