Adani met with environment department 40 times in six months

Extract from The Guardian

Carmichael coalmine

Coalition ‘holding Adani’s hand’ through mine approvals, Greens senator says

Lisa Cox and Ben Smee

Tue 11 Dec 2018 18.35 AEDT Last modified on Tue 11 Dec 2018 18.37 AEDT

The meetings with Adani over its coalmine point to a ‘cosy relationship’ with government, the Greens say. Photograph: Glenn Hunt/EPA

The federal environment department had 40 meetings in six months with Adani representatives to discuss the Carmichael coalmine project, according to responses to a Senate estimates committee.
The department met Adani executives in person at the company’s Brisbane offices, as well as conducting teleconferences, on matters including Adani’s groundwater management plans, the mine’s progress and proposals for the management of the threatened black-throated finch.
The environment minister, Melissa Price, and energy minister, Angus Taylor, met the company once each in Canberra.

  What does Adani's latest mine plan mean? – video explainer

The meetings occurred between 7 May and 7 November this year and were tabled by the department in response to questions on notice from the Greens senator Larissa Waters.
Waters had asked at an estimates hearing in October if the department, minister or assistant minister had “met with Adani representatives or lobbyists in the past six months”.
She said on Tuesday the number of meetings suggested the department was “holding Adani’s hand through the approvals process”.
The number of meetings was evidence of the “cosy relationship” Adani had with the federal government, Waters said.
“The environment department is supposed to be a regulator and protector of our environment yet it’s holding Adani’s hand through the approvals process to get this mega coalmine off the ground.
“It shouldn’t be facilitating the development of a new dirty coalmine, it should be standing up for the best interests of our people and planet.”

The company announced late last month it would self-finance its controversial coalmine but it still requires approvals from state and federal governments for its groundwater-dependent ecosystem management plan and its management plan for the black-throated finch before significant work can start at the site.
The Queensland government is also under renewed pressure to rule out two potential subsidies to Adani.
The Mackay Conservation group released polling of marginal central Queensland electorates on Tuesday that showed 60% of people oppose any form of government subsidy. Only 22% supported subsidies, and 18% were unsure.
An Australia Institute report has found a potential royalties deferment deal would effectively be a low-interest loan to Adani, worth up to $385m.
The report also looked at $100m in road upgrades being considered by the Queensland government. It analysed approval plans for the Carmichael mine and found Adani’s vehicles “would be nearly all of the traffic on the road”.

Researcher Tom Swann, the author of the report, said: “The Queensland government has said repeatedly that it will not provide taxpayer funds to Adani, but Queenslanders are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars because of these deals.”
The state government’s public statements on Adani have been sceptical in recent weeks since the announcement it would self-fund a slimmed down version of Carmichael.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said last month, “We will believe it when we see it”.
The royalties deal, which has not yet been signed, was premised as support for the “first mover” in a coal basin.

The government said it was not a special deal for Adani, but instead an incentive to provide common-use infrastructure that could be used by other proponents of coal mines in the Galilee Basin.
Both Adani and the Queensland Resources Council have talked up the potential for other miners to leverage off Carmichael in recent weeks. However, at full production, Carmichael would account for more than two-thirds of the capacity on its planned rail spur line to link up with the Aurizon freight network.
Swann said: “Adani has repeatedly promised different things to different people, and changed the project so many times it’s been hard to keep track. Adani now says this smaller rail project will open up the Galilee Basin while also insisting it’s just like any other connection from a mine to Aurizon’s network, which Aurizon would need to upgrade.
“The government shouldn’t be giving these deals to any new coalmines, but even on the terms of the government’s own policy Adani shouldn’t be eligible.”

Comment was sought from Adani and the federal environment department.