Updated
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has asked the Coordinator-General to oversee the approvals process for the Adani coal project saying both she and the community were “fed up” with waiting for the department to approve the Indian mining company’s environmental management plans.
Key points:
- The Premier says she wants DES to sit down with the Coordinator-General to develop a “definitive timeframe” on Adani
- The Indian miner is awaiting state approval on two of its environmental management plans
- Queensland ministers had previously been arguing the process could not be rushed
It comes days after Labor suffered a poor voter turnout across the state in the federal election, which has been widely attributed to the party’s position on Adani’s Carmichael mine project.
The move also comes after Queensland Government ministers spent weeks saying the Department of Environment and Science (DES) would not be rushed on making decisions.
Speaking today at a press conference at the Hay Point coal terminal at Mackay in north Queensland, the Premier announced she would appoint her Coordinator-General to oversee approvals of the mine.
“I think that the community is fed up with the processes, I know I’m fed up with the processes, I know my local members are fed up with the processes,” she said.
“We need some certainty and we need some timeframes — enough is enough.
“I’m asking for the two parties, Adani and the independent regulator (DES) to sit down with the Coordinator-General and I want them to meet tomorrow actually.
“I want them to sit down and work out a definitive timeframe on decisions around these reports.
“We’re up for this challenge, we work every day focusing on jobs.”
Adani is currently waiting on approval of two of its environmental management plans — one concerning the black throated finch, the other related to the management of ground water at the site.
Last month, the Federal Government granted its final environmental approvals for the project days before the election was called.
‘No more talk’: Canavan
Federal Minister for Resources Matt Canavan said north and central Queensland didn’t need “more talk” from a Premier who clearly did not understand her own processes.
“They have been working on this Adani mine for eight years, they’ve had the management plans that are in contention at the moment for the past 18 months,” Mr Canavan said.
“The Premier has to just approve the mine. No more talk Annastacia, just approve the mine.”
He said it was up to Ms Palaszczuk to meet with Adani herself, instead of blaming her own department and sending it to the Coordinator-General.
“If the Premier today says she is fed up with the lack of progress with Adani, the Premier needs to answer, how long has she been fed up with her own government and why hasn’t she done something about it before today,” he said.
“And what she is saying today, is not very much at all … she is saying she wants to have a meeting … the Premier has announced today that the solution to jobs in north and central Queensland is to have a meeting.
“This is something that’s Life of Brian, this is something that is Pythonesque, this government is beyond farce now, where they think the answer to creating jobs in north and central Queensland is another bloody meeting.”
Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow commended the Premier for “copping it on the chin”.
“I want to praise and appreciate the premier’s leadership … it might’ve been better a little earlier … but that took guts for her to come out today,” Ms Strelow said.
She said it was “good leadership” by Ms Palaszczuk, rejecting the idea the Government was in damage control.
“We’ve seen democracy in action, we’ve seen leadership in action and I want to say thank you to the Premier, and now let’s get it done,” she said.
“I think she stepped up and copped it on the chin, and she said what she needed to say and I couldn’t have written a better script myself.”
But the Mayor said the region was not going to rest on its laurels, with a day of action still set to take place on Friday.
Topics:
coal,
business-economics-and-finance,
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