Finch trade-off breaks Adani mine stalemate

High-level crisis talks have resolved an impasse over a protection plan for an endangered finch that has stalled the Adani project.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Townsville yesterday. Picture: Zak Simmonds

A major hurdle to Adani’s coalmine could be cleared within weeks, after high-level crisis talks resolved an impasse over a protection plan for an endangered finch that has stalled the controversial project.

Queensland Premier Anna­stacia Palaszczuk will today announc­e a timeline for final state sign-off of Adani’s environmental plans — to meet conditions of existing state and federal approvals — after federal Labor’s disastrous election result in the state was blamed on the Adani stalemate.

Adani’s strategy to deal with the endangered black-throated finch is expected to be approved by the state’s Environment Departme­nt within weeks. Government sources said state officials and the Indian conglom­er­ate had agreed that popul­ation surveys of the bird could occur in the early years of the project instead­ of before construction.

But it is understood the CSIRO will still need to sign off on the latest version of the company’s groundwater management plan before work can start.

After months of refusing to inter­vene in her own government’s lengthy approval pro­cess­es for Adani, Ms Palaszczuk said yesterday she had been forced to order the crisis talks after the electoral fallout in regional Queensland over the project’s delays had delivered a “wake-up call”.

“What I’ve said very clearly is we need timeframes,” the Premie­r said, adding that she had had “a gutful” of the delays.

“The federal elect­ion was a big wake-up call for everyone.”

If the final approvals are secure­d for the mine, first touted in 2010, the focus will switch to Adani and its self-financing of the now revised-down $2 billion projec­t, which will open up the burgeoning Galilee Basin thermal coal province.

Deputy Premier and Treas­urer Jackie Trad, the leader of the dominant Left faction and a vocal Adani sceptic, said she “fully supported” Ms Palasz­czuk’s move but stopped short of specifically backing the mine to go ahead.

“I want long-term secure jobs in regional Queensland and all over Queensland … and if that comes in the thermal coal sector, then that needs to happen,” Ms Trad said on Brisbane radio.

“But … we’ve got an obli­gation … under the Paris Agreement, we have to be moving to lower our emissions. And that means keeping­ carbon in the ground.”

Queensland Co-ordinator-General Barry Broe met Adani’s Australian chief executive Lucas Dow and state Envir­onment Department officials in Brisbane yesterday, and further meetings will be held this morning to finalise details before Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement.

After the meeting, Mr Dow said he was “emboldened” by the productive talks. “We have been asking for clarity of timing and process for more than seven months now, and we are now more confident than ever that we will receive it,” he said.

“Ultimately, however, actions speak louder than words. We look forward to the Co-ordinator-General working to ensure that the agreed timeframes are met.”

The Adani impasse sparked an internal revolt from regional Labor state MPs, who had pressed Ms Palaszczuk to deliver certainty on the project.

In a sign of deepening internal divisions in state Labor, the construction division of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union warned Ms Palaszczuk yesterday that she risked selling out local jobs to a “shonky multi­nat­ional” if she rushed the approvals.

That was in contrast to the CFMEU’s mining division, which has championed Adani and pressured Labor candidates before the election to support the project.

“Without enforceable guarantees on secure local jobs and procure­ment — along with sureties relating to water security — the Premier risks being conned by corporate carpet-baggers,” said CFMEU construction and general state secretary Michael Ravbar.

Mr Dow said yesterday he was confident he still had the support of Stephen Smyth, the president of the CFMEU’s mining division, despit­e Mr Ravbar’s statement.

This month, Queensland’s Environment Department told Adani its finch management plan was being sent back to the drawing board, with the company saying a required survey of the finch population before construction could take up to five years.

Adani said in the past two years seven versions of the strategy had been submitted to the department, with government official­s reviewing each version.

The Indian conglomerate is yet to sign up to a royalties incentive deal with the state government, which was offered to it in mid-2017 before the November state election. The government had offered to let Adani defer the payment of some royalties for the first five years of coal exports from the mine, with the full amount to be paid, with interest, at a later date.

Senior state Labor sources said they suspected Adani was now anglin­g to exploit the political fallout from the federal election to pressure the government to offer a more generous royalties deal.

Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Trad have refused to rule out increasing mining royalties across the sector in next month’s budget.

The Queensland Resources Council has been lobbying for a guarantee there will be no hike in mining royalties and called yesterday for Ms Palasz­czuk to give an answer before she flies to Japan on a trade mission on Sunday.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the industry would pay the state government a record $5.3bn in royalties this financial year. “We remain concerned Treasurer Jackie Trad will increase royaltie­s in the state budget on 11 June as part of an anti-mining agenda,” he said.

“A royalty increase undermines investment and saps confid­ence in those 14,000 Queensland businesses who supply the resources industry.”

A QRC spokesman said a royalti­es increase could affect Australia’s $7bn resources export market to Japan. “We would hope the Premier will rule out royalty changes before flying into Tokyo, where we understand the issue will be raised with (her),” he said.