Aussies oppose Adani. So why are politicians persisting?

By Leith van Onselen

Over the weekend, thousands of Australians across the country joined protests against the Adani Carmichael mega-coal project. From The ABC:

Rallies in locations including Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Port Douglas in North Queensland heard messages against Indian company Adani’s proposed mine in the Galilee Basin…

Protesters spelled out ‘#STOP ADANI’ by standing in formation on the sand…

About 2,000 people rallied in Melbourne’s Princes Park carrying placards reading ‘Coal=CO2!!!’ and ‘Protect Our Future’.

Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said she hoped the “big day of action” would send a strong message that taxpayers did not want their money subsidising the project…

At Miami on the Gold Coast around 200 people turned out to oppose the mine…

Between 200-300 people turned out at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach and more than 250 people rallied in Hobart, where speakers included former Greens leader Bob Brown.

Meanwhile, a new ReachTel survey of almost 2,200 people across Australia found 55.6% of respondents opposed the mine going ahead – more than twice the number who supported the mine. From The Guardian:

When told that the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, had made an election commitment not to spend public funds on Adani’s project, 65.8% of those polled said she should use her power to veto the possible $1bn loan the federal government might give the project through the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (Naif).

The arguments against the Adani mine are pervasive.

First, there is great financial risk surrounding the $1 billion concessional loan from Australian taxpayers to India’s Adani. India’s Minister for State Power has already acknowledged that the cost of solar power is now cheaper than coal:

Hence, the Adani Carmichael Project risks becoming an unviable stranded asset, and Australian taxpayers risk losing their dough.

Second, the subsidised project would flood the world with more cheap coal, thus depressing its price, increasing global consumption, as well as putting non-subsidised mines in NSW and QLD out of business, resulting in job losses. It also jeopardises the environment – both globally via exacerbating climate change and locally through threatening the Great Barrier Reef.

Third, the direct employment payoffs from the Adani Carmichael Project are immaterial. Adani’s CEO has continuously boasted that the Carmichael Project will be the most autonomous in the world:

Moreover, Adani’s own hand-picked economic expert, Jerome Fahrer from ACIL Allen consulting, told the Queensland Land Court that only 1,464 full-time equivalent jobs would be created by the project. These immaterial job gains must of course be offset by the job losses that would occur among other Queensland and New South Wales coal mines.

Fourth, ABC’s Four Corners last week revealed that Adani has set up secret tax havens so that it can avoid paying tax to Australians once the Carmichael project is up and running:

…experts say an opaque web of companies and trusts behind its Australian assets gives it ample opportunity to minimise the tax it pays.

“Absolutely, Adani has put in place multiple ways in which they can minimise the amount of tax they pay in Australia, and maximise the amount of profits if they choose in Caribbean tax havens,” Adam Walters, research director at the consultancy Energy and Resource Insights, told Four Corners…

Finally, the Adani Group’s track record on environmental management within India has been atrocious, as noted last week by former Indian environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.

When it comes to Adani, Australian voters are not stupid. They know that the mega-coal mine represents a wasteful and destructive white elephant, and there is absolutely no way that scarce taxpayer funds should be used on the project.

It’s high time our politicians listened.

[email protected]