Embattled MPs ask why Adani coalmine hasn’t been signed off
A delegation of Queensland MPs have held an urgent meeting with Scott Morrison to air concerns about the coalmine.
A delegation of Queensland MPs have held an urgent meeting with Scott Morrison at parliament house this morning expressing concerns that federal approval for the Adani coal mine has not been signed off despite being rubber-stamped by the Environment Department.
The Australian has been informed that a “face-to-face” meeting took place between several Queensland MPs and the Prime Minister.
The MPs, who are fighting to hold seats in the battleground state, asked why the approval for a groundwater management plan had not been ticked off by Environment Minister, Melissa Price, amid concerns that a refusal to take action could lead to a final decision being made by a future Labor government.
The Australian understands that Ms Price has refused to issue the approval in the face of intense lobbying by federal Liberal MPs in Victoria. Queensland MPs have warned that a go-slow on the federal approvals for the project would play badly in Queensland for the government.
The Australian has spoken to several Queensland MPs who were unable to deny a meeting with the Prime Minister over the water management approval.
The meeting comes just days out from the election being called and reveals the dilemma faced by the Coalition as it manages the threats to key Liberal seats in the inner cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from the anti-coal lobby while also seeking to hold key regional electorates in Queensland. The Coalition is setting up its campaign headquarters in Brisbane, with staff expected to begin arriving on the weekend.
The revived concern within Coalition ranks over the Adani project also risks derailing the government attempt to reassert control of the political agenda in the wake of the budget which delivered a $300 billion tax cut package over the decade.
The federal government had commissioned CSIRO and GeoScience Australia to assess Adani’s water management plan that was drafted to meet its obligations under the federal Department of Environment’s approval of the project.
The reviews had called for improvements to the plan, which Adani then incorporated in a final draft of the water management plan that was submitted to the department on March 15.
Sources said today that the revised plan was then cleared by the department and sent to Ms Price on Monday with a recommendation to approve it.
The standoff follows the stalling of the construction of the mine by Queensland’s Labor government which had commissioned an extraordinary review of Adani’s plan to protect the endangered black-throated finch.
That review – commissioned at the 11th hour after 18 months of consultation between Adani and state bureaucrats – led by Melbourne University ecologist Brendan Wintle, suggested a series of tough new rules that Adani is now negotiating with the state Environment Department.
The federal government has already approved the version of the finch plan rejected by Dr Wintle.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “We do not comment on the PM’s schedule.”
Adani’s spokeswoman said the company had been advised by Ms Price’s department that it had cleared the plan.
“Through our continued engagement with the Department of Environment and Energy we have been advised that the Department has made the recommendation to Minister Price to approve the plan,” she told The Australian.
“Through our continued engagement with the Department of Environment and Energy we have been advised that the Department has made the recommendation to Minister Price to approve the plan.”
Chief executive of Adani Mining, Lucas Dow, said the company had been working with the federal and Queensland state governments to finalise the outstanding “groundwater dependent ecosystem management plan”.
“Through our continued engagement with the Department of Environment and Energy we have been advised that the Department has made the recommendation to Minister Price to approve the plan,” Mr Dow said.
“We have had certainty of process and timing from (the) Australian government to date and we will continue to work with them to finalise this outstanding management plan so that we can get on with delivering thousands of jobs into north and central Queensland.”
Mr Dow said the plan had been two years in the making and involved the federal environment department engaging an “independent scientific review of the plan by technical experts from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia”.
“The Federal Department informed us that these experts made a number of recommendations in relation to improving our plan. The Department then provided Adani with a list of recommendations from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia to incorporate in our plan,” Mr Dow said.
“All of the recommendations provided by the Department to Adani Mining were incorporated into an updated and final version of the management plan. “This updated and final version of the management plan was submitted to the Department of Environment and Energy a number of weeks ago”.