Via Julien Vincent at Domainfax:
But the government’s efforts to support Adani stretch well beyond the financial.
We learned last week the former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and Trade Minister Steven Ciobo had been providing assurances to the Chinese government over Adani receiving its approvals.
A Freedom of Information request by The Australia Institute has turned up more than 200 pages relating to requests for foreign government financing of Adani’s projects.
Adani’s sights appear to be set squarely on securing a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) as a partner, which in turn could facilitate Adani securing “export credits”, a form of long-term, low interest debt. Export credits become an option only when an investment supports the national interest of the country providing the credit, be it strategic or financial.This is where you’ll need to don your mountaineering gear, because we’re about to leave base camp at Mt Absurdity and go for a climb.
Given that the proposed $900 million loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) would be the most subordinated of any debt to the project – last in line to get paid and potentially a form of quasi-equity – the Australian taxpayer now faces the prospect of subsidising a Chinese SOE investment.
Moreover, if China’s Export-Import Bank or another provider of export credits comes in, by definition that means some of the economic, employment or strategic benefits would be shifted to China, a result that Australia would also be subsidising.
Adani has been courting China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC), a potential construction partner in the project.
CMEC is a majority state-owned subsidiary of Sinomach, one of the world’s biggest providers of machinery and equipment for infrastructure projects. It has a range of businesses, but by far the biggest is providing equipment for coal power stations, which it has busily been getting on with across South Asia over the past decade.
All of this so we can build something that will lose us jobs and income plus destroy the environment.
If I didn’t have a job I’d lie down in front the bulldozer myself.
