Bill Shorten dancing around truth on Adani, Geoff Cousins says

Environmentalist Geoff Cousins says Bill Shorten has ‘dodged’ questions about his stance on the coal mine.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been criticised over his stance on the Adani coal mine. Picture: Colin Murty

Prominent Australian businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins says he is disappointed in Bill Shorten and accused him of “dancing around the truth” over his position on Queensland’s Adani coal mine.

Mr Shorten came under pressure from within Labor ranks after Mr Cousins revealed in February the Opposition Leader had given a commitment to revoke the licence for the mine if the evidence against the project remained compelling.

Mr Cousins told The Australian that Mr Shorten was now singing from a “different hymn sheet” on the $16.5bn Adani mine.

He said the Labor leader asked for and was given detailed legal advice on how he could use federal laws to revoke the licence without increasing Australia’s sovereign risk profile if he won the next federal election.

But Mr Shorten used an appearance on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night to say he would not expose Australia to “legal compensation claims” by a project he did not think would go ahead.

“What sort of leader would I be if I just exposed the Australian taxpayer to billions of dollars of compensation claims,” Mr Shorten said.

“I don’t support sovereign risk,” he said. “I don’t care how much people shout at me: I will adhere to the law.”

The Australian revealed in March that Mr Shorten accepted a $17,000 tour of the Great Barrier Reef and charter flight over the Adani coal mine from the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Both Mr Cousins and ACF chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy have said that it was on this trip that Mr Shorten pledged that a future Labor government would seek to use federal laws to halt the development of the mine.

Mr Cousins told The Australian today he was “disappointed” that Mr Shorten had not been more frank in responding to questions about what he pledged during the ACF funded trip in North Queensland on January 23 and 24.

Businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins. Picture: Britta Campion

He said Mr Shorten had “dodged” questions on this subject when pressed on the 7.30 program last night, but acknowledged the Opposition Leader had not lied about what happened.

“In fact what happened in my initial conversations with him was he raised the question of sovereign risk. And I told him that we had a legal opinion which stated clearly that sovereign risk did not arise in this matter because the EPBC Act had a specific clause relating to the ability to revoke a license in certain circumstances,” Mr Cousins said.

“He (Mr Shorten) asked me if he could have a copy of that legal advice which was immediately sent to him, and his response to me having received it was, it’s extremely useful”.

“So again, in giving that answer to Leigh Sales last night, he was dancing around the truth to a rather fine degree, I won’t say he went over the edge because he’s a clever politician.

“Sovereign risk obviously arises where there is no provision in the law but the government does it anyway.

“I’ve been a businessman for decades and I know all about sovereign risk and when it arises and when it doesn’t. And if there is a provision in the law for a license to be revoked and the government follows the proper procedures and then revokes the licence, that’s a risk the company carries. That’s not sovereign risk”.

Mr Cousins said he had not spoken to Mr Shorten since he first went public in February with the details of the Opposition Leader’s North Queensland trip.

Appearing on the 7.30 program on February 27, Mr Cousins identified the relevant clause of the EPBC Act that could be used to revoke the licence for the Adani mine as being Section 145.

“He most certainly is singing from a different hymn sheet,” Mr Cousins said. “I know he got sterner resistance from some people in his party than he expected, so he stepped away ... but the Prime Minister, to me, does it on almost a daily basis. It’s a disturbing trend I find.”