Black-throated finch flies again to stall Adani

The Queensland government has rejected Adani’s critical environment management plan to protect an endangered bird.

The black-throated finch.

Adani’s proposed coalmine was dealt a massive blow last night when the Queensland Labor government rejected the company’s critical environment management plan to protect an endangered bird that inhabits the region around the project site.

In a hardline move, state ­environment regulators ordered Adani to overhaul its Black-throated Finch Management Plan because it “did not meet ­requirements”, indefinitely ­delay­ing construction of the mine.

The decision will fuel federal Coalition accusations that the Palas­zczuk government’s Left faction, led by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, has politicised the project by seeking to delay environmental approvals needed for construction to begin.

Adani’s plan to start construction on the mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland before Christmas last year was thwarted when the Palaszczuk government ordered an 11th-hour review of the protection plan for the finch, despite it having been developed in consultation with state regulators over 18 months.

Queensland environmental officials said last night that the management plan was being sent back to the drawing board.

“The Department of Environment and Science has today advised Adani that it cannot approve its Black-throated Finch Management Plan in its current form because it does not meet the requirements of the company’s environmental authority,” a DES spokeswoman said.

“However, Adani may submit a new or revised BTFMP for DES’s consideration.”

The department said the “timeframes associated with the approval of the BTFMP now rest with Adani”.

On the eve of the federal election being called, Adani was given commonwealth approval for its groundwater management plan — also currently awaiting departmental approval — which is also crucial for the mine’s go ahead.

The mine has been a key issue in the federal election. The ­Coalition has accus­ed state and federal Labor of holding up the project to appeal to inner-city electorates where the mine is ­unpopular.

Labor insiders and two former state MPs said late last month that the Palaszczuk government’s handling of the approvals had damaged the federal opposition’s chances of picking up marginal seats in regional Queensland.

The Coalition holds 21 of the 30 federal seats in Queensland, including the seats surrounding the mine. Labor holds the Townsville electorate of Herbert by 37 votes.

The proposed Carmichael mine was downsized last year to have initial production of 10 million tonnes a year, near average for a Queensland coalmine.

The review of the finch plan, led by Melbourne University ecologist Brendan Wintle, director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, was commissioned in ­December. It was ordered several months after one of Queensland’s most outspoken anti-coal activists, Tim Seelig, the former head of the Queensland Conservation Council, was appointed as the principal adviser (strategic policy) to ­Department of Environment and Science director-general Jamie Merrick.

An Adani spokeswoman said the company’s representatives ­attended a meeting with department officials yesterday, where they were told changes would need to be made to the finch plan.

“Unfortunately, we left the meeting still no clearer on the process or timing to finalise these plans,” the spokeswoman said. “In relation to the BTFMP, the department provided some correspondence. On first pass it reads more like a wish-list generated from the Wintle report rather than feedback that corresponds with our conditions and is science-based.”

Adani’s environmental ­con­ditions previously required an ­experienced ecologist to oversee activities, but the department has demanded only those with postgraduate qualifications work on the project.

“This is clearly beyond the scope of the requirement that we are obligated to meet and just another example of the Queensland Labor government shifting the goalposts,” the Adani spokeswoman said.

In its statement, the department said it would seek “a number of vital commitments” from Adani prior to signing off on a resubmitted finch plan, including “gathering more accurate population information” on the bird.

Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan said Labor had caved in to pressure from the Greens and from inner-city ­electorates. “The Labor Party has to answer why they are listening to anti-coal academics in Melbourne and not the workers of central and north Queensland,” he said.

It emerged yesterday that the Palaszczuk government had waved through environmental approvals for a proposed $1.7 billion coal mine in the neigh­bouring Bowen Basin, which is also a habitat for the black-throated finch.

A spokesman for the Premier said a different approach was adopted because the Bowen Basin mine had a smaller population of finches.