Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Bill Shorten split on Adani

Annastacia Palaszczuk has reiterated her support for the Adani mine, despite Bill Shorten saying he doesn’t support it.

Labor leader Bill Shorten says he has “learnt not to react to unsourced comments on social media”, after being asked about comments from a frontbench colleague that he has “lost the plot” over Queensland’s Adani mine.

The comments from the colleague, who also said Mr Shorten was “off the reservation”, were not made on social media, but to a Sky News journalist.

Sky News is this afternoon reporting that Mr Shorten’s treasury spokesman Chris Bowen warned Mr Shorten against taking any position on Adani which could raise sovereign risk fears.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has meanwhile reiterated her support for the mine, despite Mr Shorten yesterday declaring he doesn’t support the project.

The LNP opposition challenged the premier in the Queensland parliament’s Question Time on Tuesday to explain what her position on the proposed billion-dollar mine is in the wake of Mr Shorten’s comments.

“The government supports Adani as long as it financially stacks up. We have been clear about that from day one,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Mr Shorten’s office earlier responded to an accusation from a Labor frontbencher that the leader has “lost the plot” on the Adani mine, saying “nothing’s changed” in the party’s policy on the issue.

An unnamed frontbencher told Sky News this morning Mr Shorten is “off the reservation” and “on a frolic of his own against the party position”, after the Labor leader yesterday hardened the party’s stance on the central Queensland coal mine, saying he does not support it.

Labor’s position had previously been that the mine would need to stack up economically without government intervention.

“I have learnt to not react to unsourced comments on the social media. That is a distraction,” Mr Shorten said.

“Let’s be very straightforward here about Adani. I have made it clear that I am a sceptic and increasingly sceptical of the Adani proposal.

“Labor has said since the last federal election that if it doesn’t stack up commercially or environmentally, this project shouldn’t go ahead.

“Labor said at the last federal election that we wouldn’t provide taxpayer funds. So I think that that is the right approach and that is the right policy and I make no apology for putting forward a view which says we are increasingly sceptical. I am not a fan of it.”

Mr Shorten said Labor would not rip up contracts made in good faith by previous governments.

“That would be to invite sovereign risk, so Labor has a very clear position: if the proposal doesn’t stack up commercially and environmentally, it shouldn’t go ahead, but we won’t engage in sovereign risk.

“The reason why I won’t do that is because I don’t want to expose taxpayers in the future to billions of dollars of compensation claims.”

Amid a by-election battle against the Greens in the inner northern Melbourne seat of Batman, Mr Shorten yesterday said: “I don’t support the Adani project.”

Mr Shorten said last year he supported the $16.5 billion mine, but more recently said he was “sceptical” about the project.

One of Mr Shorten’s frontbench colleagues told Sky News Labor could not win the next election without central and north Queensland seats such as Herbert, around Townsville.

“We can’t win the next election without a number of seats in Queensland like Herbert which love Adani,” the frontbencher said.

“I don’t know what’s going through his mind, obviously Batman, but if he thinks he can outflank the Greens on Adani, he’s kidding himself.”

A spokesman for Mr Shorten hit back, saying “nothing’s changed” in the Opposition Leader’s views on Adani. “It’s no secret he’s not a fan of the project,” the spokesman said.

“Bill has consistently said it has to stack up environmentally and commercially, and so far it hasn’t.

“He’s also been clear that Labor governments don’t rip up contracts or create sovereign risk.”

Bill Shorten ‘has appalled colleagues’

Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has described Bill Shorten as a political “chameleon” who has clearly “appalled his own colleagues” in declaring the $16.5bn Adani Carmichael mine project does not have his support.

“Another day, another position from the chameleon of Australian politics Bill Shorten over the $16.5bn Adani Carmichael mine,” he said.

“Clearly his comments have appalled his own colleagues, who have said that he has ‘lost the plot’ and is now ‘off the reservation’.

“Bill Shorten is looking over his shoulder at other (leadership) contenders like Anthony Albanese, and now is at war with his own party.

“If Bill Shorten can’t be trusted to maintain a consistent line on the Carmichael mine, he can’t be trusted with other projects. He is a risk to jobs and investment everywhere.”

Mr Frydenberg said the Adani mine, located in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin, had been through extensive state and federal environmental approvals and did not pose a risk to the Great Barrier Reef.

“There were strict conditions that were attached and the mine itself, contrary to what Bill Shorten might say, is in the Galilee Basin 300 kilometres inland in a dry, dusty bowl of Queensland,” he said.

Mr Frydenberg said he was no aware of any commonwealth money going to the project at this stage.

“It’s now a commercial decision for the company to go ahead,” he said.

“As you know, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was looking at other investments in a multi-use railway line. That did not go ahead, so I’m not aware of any other commonwealth money at this stage that is going to the project.

“It’s basically had its approvals and the money for this project is private investment to create thousands of jobs in the private sector in Queensland, and I note that the communities themselves, that the Labor mayors, that the unions, have come out strongly in support of this project, from Rockhampton and Mackay to Hughenden and to Charters Towers and to other groups and other communities, they support this mine, including in Townsville, where dare I say it the Labor member is nowhere to be seen supporting jobs in her own area.

“There is no case before me about any funding from the commonwealth. We’re not focused on commonwealth funding.

“The Labor Party may try to raise these straw men, the reality is the project has received its approvals, the project can go ahead based on a commercial decision. There is not commonwealth funding that is standing ready to be given.”

Macdonald calls for Labor leadership spill

Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has called for Cathy O’Toole, the Labor Member for the Townsville seat of Herbert, to disassociate herself from Mr Shorten and call for a leadership spill.

“Labor leader Bill Shorten has single-handedly killed of thousands of North Queensland jobs and caused irreparable sovereign risk after finally confirming he does not support the Adani project,” Senator Macdonald said.

“I demand that the local MP Cathy O’Toole disassociate herself immediately and forcefully from her Labor leader.

“Mr Shorten’s treachery in itself is good reason for Ms O’Toole to call for a leadership spill in the Labor opposition. It’s that serious.

“While the government is doing everything possible to develop the north and provide jobs, Mr Shorten is doing the exact opposite and seems more interested in the latte sippers of Batman than the workers of North Queensland.”

‘We’re getting on with the job’: Adani

Adani tweeted that they were “getting on with the job” of setting up the mine, and welcomed Mr Shorten’s assurances that he would not rip up contracts.

“We are getting on with the job & we welcome the comments from Mr Shorten & Labor frontbenchers that they will not be seeking to overturn any of our 112 approvals, many tested & upheld in courts,” the company said.

Adani said it was currently employing 800 people in Queensland and spending $7.2m each month on salaries.

‘Shorten is an $8bn threat’: Hanson

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson labelled Mr Shorten an “$8bn threat to Central Queensland.

She said Mr Shorten’s opposition to the mine had come after former Labor member and Mayor of Rockhampton Margaret Strelow said the Carmichael mine would bring more than $8 billion in wages and jobs to Central Queensland.

“Despite the fact that politicians from his own party have said the mine is worth billions to Central Queensland, Bill Shorten is still opposed to the Carmichael Mine,” Senator Hanson said.

“I think it is disgusting that Bill Shorten is prepared to risk billions of dollars for Central Queensland just because he is scared of losing the Batman by-election.”

‘Increasing scepticism’ about Adani: Chisholm

Queensland Labor senator Anthony Chisholm, who is aligned with the Australian Workers’ Union, said Queenslanders were increasingly sceptical about the mine going ahead. Senator Chisholm recently accompanied Mr Shorten on a tour of regional Queensland, during which Mr Shorten declared Labor was “the party of coal miners”, and announced coal miner Russell Robertson as Labor’s candidate in the seat of Capricornia, centred on Rockhampton.

“What I see, and I spend a lot of time up there, and I spend a lot of time with Bill up there as well, and there’s been an increasing amount of scepticism that the project is actually going ahead, and I think that there’s been a level of frustration from Bill Shorten,” he told Sky News.

.@AnthonyChisholm: 'There's been an increasing amount of skepticism that Adani is going ahead and we've seen frustration from @billshortenmp regarding this. We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket'

MORE: https://t.co/kVCK6RN1Zi #amagenda pic.twitter.com/RVcyHxEOa9

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 5, 2018

“I think we saw it from other political leaders as well, that this is the only thing that’s being talked about in North Queensland, and I certainly know from Bill and I certainly know the determination of the senior leadership of the Labor Party is we don’t want to have been in government for five years and have not delivered on projects in North Queensland.

“So we don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket, and that’s what we’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been spending time in regional Queensland, making announcements about projects that are actually going to deliver jobs for regional Queensland, and I think there’s going to be a real marked contrast between where the federal Labor Party go and the direction we take compared to what the LNP have been doing up there for five years, which is nothing.”

Senator Chisholm said anyone who had been listening to Mr Shorten’s comments on Adani in recent months “wouldn’t have been surprised” by his comments yesterday.

“What we’ve said consistently is that the project needs to stack up on its own merits, both commercially and environmentally, and that’s what we’re sticking to so we’re not going to create any sovereign risk problems,” he said.

Senator Chisholm said there was growing frustration in regional Queensland that the Indian mining giant would not get the necessary finance to proceed with the mine.

“I think that as more information comes to light and the frustration grows, and as I said I think Bill is reflecting the frustration that many people in Queensland have,” he said.

“Even the mayors, people like Jenny Hill, Margaret Strelow the mayor of Townsville, the mayor of Rockhampton, both good friends of mine, and they’ve historically been strong supporters of the Adani project but even they are getting frustrated that the company’s failing to meet deadlines, it’s failing to get its approvals in place, and it’s failing to meet its end of the bargain, so I think Bill’s expressing frustrations about that, there’s plenty of people in North Queensland and Central Queensland who’d agree with him.’’

‘Bill Shorten’s a liar’

Victorian Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar said the anonymous comments to Sky News showed there were “some sensible Labor people” who are “extraordinarily alarmed” by Mr Shorten’s comments.

“We’ve seen the movement from Bill Shorten over recent weeks and months,” Mr Sukkar told Sky. “Before the election he supported Adani. Following the election at the Oakey mine when speaking to members of the CFMEU he said he was pro-coal and pro-coal miners.

“Then he was taken on a jaunt by the Australian Conservation Foundation to the Great Barrier Reef that they paid for, where apparently he made a promise that he didn’t support Adani.

“He denied that and now he is almost confirming that position by saying he doesn’t support it.

“Bill Shorten’s a liar. Let’s not mince words here. Bill Shorten’s a liar.

.@MichaelSukkarMP: 'We've seen the movement from @billshortenmp over recent weeks and months. Before the election he supported Adani, and now he's confirming he doesn't support it. Bill Shorten is a liar. Let's not mince words here.'

MORE: https://t.co/kVCK6RN1Zi #amagenda pic.twitter.com/p8GSPAc4dH

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 5, 2018

“He’s lied time and time again and it’s catching up with him, and the day of reckoning when you tell lies to one group and lies to the other, and you say one thing in Batman and another thing in Queensland, eventually it will catch up with you. And I suspect what you’re seeing is alarm within the Labor Party that they have a leader who would be willing to threaten thousands of jobs, not just on the Carmichael mine, but as you rightly point out, creating an environment where sovereign risk is in play, where investors look at Australia and say, ‘We’ve got a leader of a major political party, who would presumably, based on his non-support for the Carmichael mine, presumably would be willing to tear up environmental approvals, tear other government approvals, I mean it’s extraordinarily alarming.”

In April last year, Mr Shorten told an audience in Queensland: “I support the Adani coalmine so long as it stacks up. I hope it stacks up, by the way.”

Yesterday he said he was “not supportive” of the project.

“In terms of the commerce, no Australian bank will invest in it. No Australian super will invest in it. How many more deadlines can this business fail to meet?” Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten failed to address a direct question on whether he gave an assurance to the Australian Conservation Foundation in January that he would use federal laws to revoke Adani’s licence if it managed to get off the ground.

The Labor leader accepted a $17,000 private ACF-funded tour of the Great Barrier Reef and charter flight over the Adani mine site on January 23-24.

Former ACF president Geoff Cousins said last week that while on the trip, Mr Shorten discussed how he could use federal environmental laws to revoke Adani’s licence if Labor won government.

—With AAP