Anyone would think that the Adani mine was viable, from The Australian:
Labor frontbenchers have warned Bill Shorten that the opposition cannot be seen as “anti-coal” and urged him to shift the Adani debate away from “green” issues and on to public funding and alleged flaws in the approval process.
Labor right-wing MPs have begun to push back against the opposition’s lurch to the left on issues such as Adani, claiming that the party is dangerously exposed to appearing anti-coal and anti-jobs. Labor sources have confirmed the issue was raised in shadow cabinet on Monday night but was a “discussion” rather than a heated debate. They said it had been noted that the Opposition Leader had begun in recent days to “moderate” his language.
The internal warning came as former coalminer and mining union official Mike Brunker, who narrowly failed to win the state seat of Burdekin for Labor at last November’s Queensland election, yesterday warned Mr Shorten he could say goodbye to north Queensland at the next federal election if he turned his back on the Adani mine.
The AFR:
Federal Labor has all but resolved to oppose the $16.5 billion Adani coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin but is grappling to come up with a rationale to avoid increasing Australia’s sovereign risk or exposing the Commonwealth to a compensation claim.
Sources have told The Australian Financial Review that while the shadow cabinet is not split on the issue, there are differing views about how to reach a position of outright opposition given the mine proposal has cleared all state and federal approvals, environmental and otherwise.
It is struggling to secure finance with no major Australian bank interested and the Queensland Labor government vetoing the prospect of Adani securing a $1 billion loan from the federal government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund to help build a rail line linking the mine to a port.
We all know that the Adani mine has a breakeven above $100 per tonne. The coal price has been there once in five years and it won’t last. As such it is a subsidised marginal cost producer that will simply lower the price further and put other more efficient NSW mines out business. That’s counter-productive economically on every measure.
There is no business case for it, that’s the rationale for throwing it out. SMH:
Resources Minister Matt Canavan on Monday accused Labor of betraying workers.
“You would think that a Labor party would be on the side of jobs, on the side of workers,” Mr Canavan said, challenging Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to travel to Queensland to explain his position.
“Don’t send missives off 2000 kilometres away from where this mine is [proposed], telling us all we can’t have jobs, we can’t have economic opportunity”.
Labor appears set to oppose the project, but it is understood there is broad concern among MPs about how to assuage Queensland constituents concerned about high unemployment.
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A senior Labor source told Fairfax Media that Labor was “developing a plan for central and North Queensland [to support] their economic future”.
Another Labor source said the plan had been in development for some time.
“I certainly think there is a thirst out there for people to hear alternatives to Adani, and if Labor is at the forefront of proposing them then I think that is solid electoral ground for us,” the source said.
Canavan is not an economist’s elbow. This all about one thing and one thing only. One Nation votes. The Galilee is its heartland.
