Press release – 17 May, 2017Thursday, 18 May 2017: The Queensland Government’s plan to offer the Carmichael coal mine a cash handout in the form of a "royalties holiday" is a disgrace and shows that they have turned their back on the community.Leaked details [1] of the proposal this morning revealed Adani, the operator of the mine, would initially pay just $2 million a year in royalties when the $21 billion project was up and running.
This concession would mean they would sidestep paying anywhere up to $320 million in royalties to the Queensland community.
“This morning’s revelation that the Queensland Premier has sold out her own constituents is a disgrace,” Greenpeace campaigner Nikola Casule said.
“This arrangement is only the latest in a series of insults delivered by a government that seems to be putting the interests of big polluting fossil fuel companies before the community.
“It wasn’t enough simply to facilitate the waste of $1 billion of federal taxpayers money on the rail line for this project and to grant unlimited water access in one of the country’s most drought stricken areas.
“Now Premier Palaszczuk is taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from Queensland taxpayers and handing it over to a billionaire mining company at a time when we need to take urgent action on climate change to protect natural treasures like the Great Barrier Reef.
“During the election Palaszczuk promised there would be no taxpayer money funnelled into this project. This royalty holiday is a broken promise to the people who elected her and to the communities that rely on her to champion their interests.”
Greenpeace are calling on the Queensland government to immediately withdraw any plans which stop coal mines paying their fair share of royalties to the Australian public and to commit to keeping public money out of fossil fuels by opposing any funds for the Carmichael project via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
“This is money that could be used to fund any number of community projects from schools to hospitals to providing assistance to our farmers or aid to the victims of natural disasters like Cyclone Debbie,” Casule said.
“There are countless people and organisations more deserving of the money that should go to the people of Queensland than a billionaire mining company.”
It is reported the royalty rate will then increase after several years.
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-18/queensland-government-gives-adani-royalties-holiday/8536560
For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 /