Press release – 13 June, 2017June 14, 2017: The inquiry into the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) should recommend the removal of conflicted members from the facility’s board and ensure billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money is not gifted at the whim of a “slush fund” but is instead spent to benefit the community.The Senate today voted to establish an inquiry into the NAIF and any potential conflicts of interest on its board. This came after revelations that one of the board’s directors, Karla Way-McPhail, also runs mining labour and equipment hire companies and had made “hyper-partisan comments” online in support of the coal industry.
“A compromised board consisting of mining executives, some of them personally familiar with, and recommended by the resources minister, is no way to decide how to spend $5 billion dollars of taxpayers money,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule said.
“For too long the NAIF board have been allowed to operate in the shadows, refusing to answer any and all questions put to them about how they were planning to spend billions of dollars of the public’s money.
“Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan has labelled the NAIF ‘a slush fund’ on more than one occasion and declared it would be a ‘disaster’ for Australia if it were allowed to continue to operate unchecked.”
Greenpeace welcomes today’s announcement, which should serve as an alarm for the Australian community.
“Facts which have recently come to light have shown serious questions need to be asked about the members who comprise the board and their agendas,” Casule said.
“This is particularly concerning when NAIF is currently considering a $1 billion loan to the rail infrastructure for the Carmichael coal mine: a project that’s an economic and environmental disaster.
“This inquiry must serve as a notice for the NAIF board and the dying coal industry that the country will not stand by while $1 billion dollars is used to prop up projects which would be a disaster for Queensland both environmentally and economically.”
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