Across Queensland, there has been growing resistance to the proposed Carmichael coal mine operated by Adani. It’s difficult to measure exact support but pollsters are predicting it may be a deciding issue for on the fence urban voters. Rallies, flyers and stickers have been popping up around Brisbane increasingly for the last 18-24 months and since Premier Annastasia Palazscsuk’s announcement of the election on Sunday, StopAdani activists have been popping up multiple times on her election tour around Queensland.
In 2014 changes were made to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 so that the government does not have to consider expert advice before approving major developments such as mines and ports. Ironically, the Federal court overturned the initial approval because the Environment Minister Greg Hunt had not assessed the impact on 2 endangered species in the Galilee basin. Later, it was found a third endangered species was also placed at risk by the mine proposal.
The mine is opposed by the traditional owners of the Galilee Basin, the Wangan and Jagalingou people. Adani launched legal action with the Native Title tribune in 2015 to get the state government to compulsorily acquire the land and allow the mine to proceed. The court action is based on the premises that the mine is in the “public good” and that the spokespeople for the Wangan and Jagalingou people is not authorised to speak on their behalf. The High Court eventually ruled against Adani, however not before AG Brandis attempted to delay the ruling for an amendment to the Native Title Act to go through which would make it significantly easier for land use proposals (such as Adani) to be approved under the NTA. From what I can tell the amendment has been passed by the federal House of Reps but not the Senate yet. http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/our-fight/
Opposition to the mine has been consistent since the early days of the proposal, where an activism campaign led Premier Palascuk to promise and follow through with a ban on dredging within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The creation of Adani’s Carmichael mine will lead to an expansion of coal shipping through the GBR carrying with it an increased risk of coal spills and ensuing environmental damage. Queensland Labour was also at one point considering a waiver of some of the royalties Adani would have to pay on the new mine.
Australian banks have refused to finance the mine.
Queensland farmers and handholders are concerned about massive groundwater usage and potential water pollution.
I support the campaign against Adani. If Queenslanders are motivated I am sure there are a range of community groups campaigning against it. It is good to do some community campaigning with broad coalitions.
this issue is opposed by many libertarians too including Alan Jones if you consider him one.
But the argument from libertarians is that you should get your loan from the bank like the rest of us and not come running to the government for a loan which is basically crony corporatism, even before you consider the companies track record and the fact its not even an australian company.
I’m no big L Libertarian, but that isn’t true (I’m more of a libertarian socialist). Libertarians are usually great on IP and civil liberties issues. They don’t want the state interfering with people’s lives and they want an efficient market, where IP is rent seeking and therefore not efficient. We have Libertarians in the Pirate Party and they agree with our platform and it’s fine. Even the hated IPA are usually good on civil liberties issues (the idea that they control the Liberal Party is laughable because the Liberal Party suck on civil liberties issues).
Overall I suppose the best thing anyone could do for Adani is to make a solid counterproposal which would generate the same 1500 jobs (yes, it’s that few) and a similar amount of export income (which would be significantly larger). It would provide some counterargument for the government and the community to unite behind. Does anyone know any possible candidates?
The 1464 jobs figure quoted by Adani was a properly sourced update from their earlier exaggerated 10,000 figure. Resourcing is on relatively short boom/bust cycle as well so we can expect those 1500 jobs, if accurate, to only be temporary.
Perhaps a little too contentious; I was hoping we could come up with something purpose built for the site.
The docs is divided into a few sections including problems with adani, system requirements and of course the solution; any contribution would be great!
I don’t know how edit access works with Google docs, (i.e. if it’s possible to open edit access to all PPAU members without doing individual requests), but I’ve sent a request for edit access.
This is the right sort of idea, although I’d argue you don’t really need to consider the export income unless you’re thinking national politics rather than state politics. Export income is more of a benefit for the Feds since it boosts the exchange rate, tax revenue, and means they don’t need to distribute as much to QLD via interstate transfers (including lower tax revenue, higher welfare expenditure and lower GST share).
The irony here is the sort of favouritism shown to mineral exports and boosting export income (and the exchange rate) from natural resources is what contributed to the demise of the car manufacturing industry. These funds could be invested in so many more useful things. Infrastructure Australia probably has a decent list.
According to here, Adani can’t make the mine profitable unless coal prices spike. So honestly for me this problem is functionally solved - ?
I mean there’s no financial incentive for Adani to implement this mine, according to this site - what is there left to do really? Is the final goal to make it impossible for him to develop the mine regardless of future economic conditions?
I saw a headline this morning about Adani possibly securing funding from China sources which would then jeopardise prospects of local jobs, but it seems to have been hinted in this one.
6th paragraph:
When I saw this, I saw it as “if we do fund it, we (Australia) will like get the work, but at sacrifice of a shit tonne of tax payer funds (the “tax holiday”), but if China fund it, we (Australia) lose said jobs”.
So is a counterproposal based around renewable technology still in order? I could pull something together: Build a solar collector over the Adani site, build a High Voltage DC line to the coast, then build a plant which uses that energy as well as the Sabatier reaction to produce Methane (Natural Gas) from CO2.