Palaszczuk puts Adani on notice

­Indian developer Adani has been told its Carmichael coal project is ‘not the be all and end all’ of mining in Queensland.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: AAP

Annastacia Palaszczuk has put ­Indian developer Adani on notice that its planned Carmichael coal project in central Queensland is “not the be all and end all” of minin­g, amid growing disquiet at the company’s failure to lock in fin­ancing to start construction.

In an interview to mark the anniversa­ry of her re-election last November 25 as Queensland Premier — making her Australia’s only serving political leader to post back-to-back election wins, pending Daniel Andrews’s fate in Victoria today — she refused to explicitly endorse the Adani mine.

She pointed instead to mining investor interest from South Korea. “This is the new economy,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “OK, there is a place for all players but it is not for me to decide whether an individual company gets finance. It is not a government-funded project.”

Pressed on whether the mine would be good for the state, she said: “Jobs are good for Queensland. But we … have to also be very clear that the world is changing. So you need a combination of coal … gas and … renewals.

“I am not going to keep discussing this because I have made my views very clear about it — it is up to them to get finance.”

Adani Australia said yesterday it was “nearing completion” of the process to secure finance, but would not be drawn on when.

Key environmental and planning requirements have been met at state and federal levels.

“As soon as we have secured fin­ance, we will be ready to start construction,” a spokesman said. “We are 100 per cent committed on delivering the Carmichael project and the thousands of new jobs it will provide for Queenslanders.”

The ongoing delays and missed deadlines by Adani early in the develop­ment process fed perceptions the project was on the skids, even though Adani Australia chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj insisted the company had spent $3.3 billion to get it this far.

Wedged by opposition to the mine from Greens and Labor prog­ressives, Bill Shorten has expres­sed “increasing scepticism” about its prospects, although he says a federal Labor government would not stand in the way if Adani had cash and environ­mental clearances to proceed and no taxpayer funding was involved.

Ms Palaszczuk announced at last year’s state election campaign that her government would veto Adani’s bid for a federal loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, which led the company to pull its application and scale back a planned rail link to get the ore to port.

Frustrated by the delays, Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill withdrew in July an $18.5 million offer by the city to co-fund an ­airport at the remote mine site that would be used by fly-in, fly-out workers.

Asked if she were running out of patience with the company, Ms Palaszczuk said: “I do not think the Adani project is the be all and end all of mining in Queensland.”

Pointing to investment interest in the northwest mining province near Mount Isa that she encountered during a recent trade visit to South Korea, she said: “We have companies actively talking about pursuing … the minerals needed to build batteries, wind turbines, electric vehicles.”