Fortescue agrees to pay back taxpayer millions on failed hydrogen projects

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has bent the knee and agreed to pay back government funding directed towards the billionaire’s failed Gladstone hydrogen venture ‘where required’.

Andrew Forrest signs a worker’s shirt during meeting at Fortescue. Picture: NewsWire / Sharon Smith

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Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has bent the knee and agreed to pay back government funding directed towards the billionaire’s failed Gladstone hydrogen venture “where required”.

In comments that go well beyond an initial statement made by Fortescue declaring it would be inappropriate to weigh in on the matter while in talks with the federal and Queensland governments, Fortescue on Friday told The Australian it had been “upfront” over the issue of repaying taxpayer dollars.

“We have been upfront with the government and will return funds where required under the grant agreement,” a Fortescue spokeswoman said.

“Those conversations are already underway,” they added.

Fortescue this week ditched plans to spend almost $900m on a hydrogen project in Arizona and confirmed that what was once touted as a $1bn investment in a hydrogen facility in Gladstone would no longer go ahead.

The $140m PEM50 hydrogen plant in Queensland was opened about a year ago but mothballed in May when about 90 staff were cut from its hydrogen division. The plant had received about $60m in federal and Queensland government support.

A spokeswoman for Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres flagged the government believed it would be appropriate for Fortescue – a company worth almost $60bn – to refund the taxpayer assistance provided.

Fortescue blamed the changes implemented under the Trump administration as the key driver of the decision to kill off the Arizona project.

Mr Forrest travelled to China with Anthony Albanese and said the West no longer needed to be suspicious of Xi Jinping’s regime, prompting fierce criticism from figures such as former prime minister Scott Morrison.

“I’m sure Dr Forrest’s comments would have been well received by the CCP in Beijing,” he said on Capitol Hill on Thursday.