Palaszczuk U-turn on Adani amid rout fear

Annastacia Palaszczuk has criticised her own party’s delaying of approvals for Adani.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, second from left, with Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert, right, at Queensland’s Hay Point coal terminal. Picture: Caitlan Charles

A “fed up” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has performed a stunning about-face on Adani amid the threat of electoral wipe-out in Queensland and a revolt in her ranks.

The Queensland Labor leader criticised her own government’s delays over the controversial ­Carmichael coalmine and ordered crisis talks.

Just days after Labor’s federal election vote crashed in regional Queensland, and with party stalwarts blaming the state government’s stalling on Adani, Ms Palaszczuk yesterday demanded her Environment Department sort out deadlines for the mine’s environmental approvals.

Ms Palaszczuk and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad — leader of the dominant Left faction — have refused repeated requests from the company to intervene in their government’s moves to delay the project by up to five years, but yesterday the Premier conceded, saying Saturday’s electoral rout was a “wake-up call”.

“The community is fed up with the processes, I know I’m fed up with the processes, I know my local members are fed up with the processes,” Ms Palaszczuk said, after rushing to the mining centre of Mackay and donning a hard hat. “We need some certainty, and we need some timeframes. Enough is enough … the federal election was definitely a wake-up call to everyone.”

But Adani Mining chief executive Lucas Dow said the company wanted approvals finalised “within two weeks”, after years of being stonewalled by the state government on the project’s outstanding environmental approvals.

“Any time frame for a decision on these outstanding management plans longer than the next two weeks is nothing more than another delaying tactic by the Queensland Labor government designed to delay thousands of jobs for regional Queenslanders,” Mr Dow said.

Ms Palaszczuk ordered the state’s Co-ordinator-General to oversee a meeting today between the Environment Department and Adani, to hammer out timeframes for the approvals. But she would not say when, or if, the project would finally be approved.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch — a senior member of Ms Trad’s Left faction — said a final decision on the mine’s future was still up to the regulator, Queensland’s Environment Department, and would be made “free of political interference”.

A spokeswoman for Ms Trad — the government’s leading Adani sceptic — insisted the Treasurer was “100 per cent supportive of the Premier’s announcement”.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said it was extraordinary that Ms Palaszczuk had blamed her government for the Adani ­delays.

“The only people who have ­delayed the Adani project are ­Annastacia Palaszczuk and her job-destroying ministers,” Ms Frecklington said. “Even now, ­Annastacia Palaszczuk still lacks the backbone to make a decision.”

Before the election wipe-out — which saw federal Labor lose the Townsville-based seat of Herbert and the outer-Brisbane seat of Longman, and suffer significant swings against it in regional Queensland — Labor MPs and party stalwarts last week privately warned Ms Palaszczuk about an impending electoral backlash over Adani at the next state poll.

After Labor’s drubbing, some of Ms Palaszczuk’s own MPs took the extraordinary step of publicly urging the Premier to deliver certainty on Adani.

Townsville MP Scott Stewart, who would lose his seat if the federal result were repeated at next October’s state election, said federal Labor’s poor showing was a clear message that voters in regional Queensland wanted the Adani issue resolved. “(The Premier) has heard very clearly the voice of every voter in the regions,” he said yesterday. “The messages from all her regional members are certainly ringing in her ears and she’s acted on it.”

Keppel MP Brittany Lauga said Ms Palaszczuk had heeded her MPs’ warnings, and said the Premier’s leadership was safe, despite calls by regional Labor figure Mike Brunker for both Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Trad to be replaced.

“Yes, he might be feeling a bit frustrated, like we all were, but to call for heads like that was going too far,” Ms Lauga said.

But Ms Palaszczuk’s move has drawn ire from the green movement, with Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Basha Stasak warning against “caving in to pressure from Adani and the coal industry”. “If Adani’s mine goes ahead it will lock in the burning of Galilee Basin coal for decades to come,” she said.

The government has refused to sign off on two critical management plans that need to be ­approved before substantial work on the mine can begin.

Adani’s plan to start construction before Christmas last year was thwarted when the Palaszczuk government ordered an 11th-hour independent review of Adani’s black-throated finch management plan, despite it having been developed in consultation with state regulators over 18 months.

This month, the Environment Department ordered Adani to overhaul the plan, saying it “did not meet requirements”. Adani said the extra requests, which included counting every finch in proximity of the mine site, were too onerous and could set the project back five years.

Last week the department asked federal agencies CSIRO and Geoscience Australia to review Adani’s groundwater dependent ecosystem management plan, ­despite previous assurances it would not order a review.

Additional reporting: Michael McKenna