Shorten ‘dancing around the truth’ on Adani licence

A prominent businessman and environmentalist says Bill Shorten is ‘dancing around the truth’ over his position on the coal mine.

Businessman and environmental activist Geoff Cousins.

Prominent Australian businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins says he is disappointed in Bill Shorten and has 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 committed to revoke the licence for the mine if the evidence against the project remained compelling.

Mr Cousins told The Australian that Mr Shorten 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 on Monday night to say he would not expose Australia to “legal compensation claims” over 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,” he said. “I don’t support sovereign risk ... 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 a charter flight over the Adani coal mine from the Australian Conservation Foundation on January 23 and 24.

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.

“In fact what happened in my initial conversations with him was he raised the question of sovereign risk,” Mr Cousins said.

“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 licence in certain circumstances,” he said, referring to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. “He 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.”

Mr Cousins said Mr Shorten was “dancing around the truth”, saying he “dodged” questions on the 730 program about what he pledged during his ACF-funded tour. “In giving that answer to Leigh Sales ... 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. 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”.