by Cheryl Adam
Mason guesses her next destination after lunch will probably be the airport and heads there herself. Arriving at the airport she pulls in to a driveway leading to the hangar and sees what she believes is Palaszczuk’s government jet sitting on the tarmac. Another jet is nearby which looks ready to depart. The pilot is standing waiting, holding a bag of ice. A dual-cab ute pulls in behind Mason. From her rear-view mirror, she spots an unlikely passenger – Gina Rinehart, sitting in the front seat. She appears to be laughing. Of course Mason has no idea why. But she does know Rinehart has one of the other major mining projects seeking an opening in the Galilee Basin and presumes she is delighted that the focus is on Adani rather than her.
Rinehart has, by now, got other interests. She recently joined the export beef industry and, in 2017, bought the Kidman cattle empire with Chinese real estate partner Shanghai CRED. But she has retained interests in fracking and gas exploration. In June 2018,187 Atlas Iron’s board approved her $390 million cash bid to take over the company through Hancock Prospecting. “One of Atlas’ key assets is its stake in the North West Infrastructure joint venture, which controls potentially valuable rights to one of the world’s largest iron ore ports, Port Hedland.”188 Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting owns 70% of Roy Hill, an iron ore mine which recently ramped up to 55 million tonnes a year (the largest single ore mine) and is 250 kms east of Port Hedland. Iron ore is known as one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Iron ore used to produce a tonne of steel creates an average of about two tonnes of GHG.189
When the Premier’s entourage arrives, Mason quizzes journalists accompanying Palaszczuk on their next destination but no one will reveal it. Only a local journalist, who joins the contingent late, eventually confirms that the Premier’s destination is Townsville. Mason immediately rings the Stop Adani supporters in Townsville. “The Premier,” she tells them, “is on her way.”
So continues an election campaign where Palaszczuk is dogged by protestors. Everywhere she goes, the Premier is forced to confront the issue of the Carmichael mine. No matter how many sweeteners the media offers in return, such as filming Palaszczuk walking the Strand in Townsville while chatting to supporters with elderly pooches, the question is always asked: “Why do you so strongly support the Adani mine?” All that time ago in India, Geoff Cousins had been right. Public opinion has turned. Even councils are releasing public statements about their opposition to the Adani mine. The Douglas Shire north of Cairns that includes the Wet Tropics’ Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation is one such council. It reminds the Government on its website about the value of tourism to the Shire. Many others will follow.
A few days after her visit to Airlie Beach, Palaszczuk’s electioneering takes a dramatically unexpected swing. On 3 November, late one Friday afternoon, she calls a last minute media conference. She tells the assembled media that she will veto the $1 billion Adani loan from NAIF, thus effectively killing any possibility of the Adani group receiving taxpayers’ funds to build the railway line. As The Australian comments on 4 November 2017, “For constitutional reasons, a loan from the Commonwealth’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) can only be made to the Indian conglomerate via the Queensland Government.”
Shocked headlines follow. And there is plenty to write about. Less than three weeks before the election, Palaszczuk is announcing in an outraged voice that her reputation has been besmirched by those foul opponents of hers – Liberal senators in Canberra. These despicable people have tried to smear not only her reputation, but also the reputation of her partner, Shaun Drabsch, with whom she has been in a relationship since 2014 and has known for two decades it later transpires. Her opponents are dragging both their names through the mud. For what reason, the bemused media asks, still presumably wondering what this has to do with a veto of the NAIF loan. These senators, she tells them, are alleging there is a conflict of interest.
Then she drops the bombshell. Drabsch has been employed by Price, Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) as a part-time adviser on infrastructure and has been working on the Adani loan bid application to NAIF to promote Adani’s chance of securing taxpayers’ funds for the railway line for the Carmichael mine. She tells the media she first heard about her partner’s ‘real’ job only days before, on 31 October through her Chief of Staff David Barbagallo. According to an Australian Women’s Weekly article published in July 2017, Drabsch often worked from Palaszczuk’s home.
“Shaun has always told me he’s worked at PWC, working on infrastructure, and that is it,” she informed The Guardian newspaper.190 She told the media that she has just found out Drabsch had been engaged on the Adani application since May 2016. He had kept his work a secret from her under his ‘commercial-in-confidence’ obligations. Palaszczuk said she had been assured by PWC that any conflicts of interest between Drabsch’s work and her role as Premier would be managed. She also said Drabsch was only working “at a Federal level” and pointed out that he had been employed on the project after the Adani mining leases had been approved in April 2016. Nor did she have any role in the Federal Government’s NAIF loan assessment process, she added.
Thundering at the waiting cameras, she turned the focus instead on her opponents who she claimed had been attempting to undermine her integrity and the integrity of her partner. And …? And, she now had no choice but to veto the NAIF loan to Adani to prove her impartiality, save her reputation, and that of her partner. She said she would write to the Prime Minister to let him know what she had done “to neutralise the conflict.”
As it turned out, the Queensland Integrity Commissioner, Nikola Stepanov, had not recommended a veto of the loan, but had strongly suggested Palaszczuk simply sit out of any Cabinet Budget Review Committee meetings (the state’s approving authority involving Adani’s NAIF application) to manage the conflict. Palaszczuk, however, decided to go one step further. In what was to be a masterly move, she not only managed to deflect criticism that she might have a conflict of interest by making the announcement herself, she also was now in a position to challenge votes for the Greens for the upcoming state election, especially from those disillusioned with the Labor party for supporting the Adani mine. This from a Premier who had done more to secure the future of the Carmichael mine for the Adani Group than any other member of parliament.
Vetoing the NAIF loan would be one of the first issues she would handle, if her government were re-elected when parliament resumed after the election, she assured the media. The media hardly dwelt on the minutiae of the story, nor, it seemed, asked many questions about how the Premier had no idea what her partner’s job entailed. That is apart from a few columnists, including right-wing Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt who accused her of undermining the Adani mine through her actions.
Drabsch’s LinkedIn profile stated that he was “Assisting the National Infrastructure Advisory team to facilitate the assessment and procurement of, or bidding for, major projects.” Palaszczuk clearly knew Adani was one of those seeking funds from NAIF. The LinkedIn entry states that Drabsch’s job with PWC ended in December 2017.
The motivation for Palaszczuk’s passionate defence of Adani has been a frequent conversation in the halls of parliament, party rooms and suburban shopping malls. I cast my mind back to her reaction when we had spoken about the number of jobs Adani would create in October 2016. How surprised she had appeared when I told her an Adani representative had said it was fewer than 1500 and not 10,000. Anna Krien, in her Quarterly Essay, echoes my sentiments. “Is it possible she is unaware of evidence given under oath by Adani’s own handpicked expert, Jerome Fahrer, in the Queensland Land Court?”191 Krien asks (p. 12), after writing about Palaszczuk announcing that Townsville would be the base for Adani’s regional headquarters: “You can’t get the smile off my face.”
What other sources had she been relying upon when she rushed through critical infrastructure status for the Adani project, offered free groundwater, and discussed waiving royalties for Adani and ignoring th
e company’s dubious environmental and financial history? In spite of more recent commitments in May 2018 to funding for the Great Barrier Reef, Palaszczuk seems to be focused on the notion of ‘Make Queensland Great’ at the expense of the environment by pursuing the Adani mine with such single-mindedness. Encouraging coal mining, a major villain in the climate change drama, can only have the most catastrophic impact on the reef’s future.
As to the identity of the LNP Senators who engaged in such “truly and utterly disgusting behaviour,” according to Palaszczuk, none of the media appeared to have revealed their names. Federal resources minister Matt Canavan was on the record saying he had canvassed senators and no one had owned up to the allegations made by Palaszczuk. She had explained that her federal colleagues had alerted her to allegations being raised in parliament about ‘a conflict of interest’ involving a Queensland minister but it was never clear that it was Palaszczuk herself. It was clear to any observer of Queensland State party politics, however, that there was considerable conflict within the party about the Adani mine. Canavan also commented that the [Queensland] Government had been “all over the shop” on Adani. Palaczscuk’s Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, had been on the record saying that the Labor Government would not participate in any NAIF loan and would block Federal funding.
This was contradicted the following day by the Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt. Strategists had suggested to Labor that supporting the Adani loan was a critical step towards retaining marginal seats in regional Queensland, especially Townsville, even though polls showed a majority in the state, as well as nationally, opposed Adani receiving a government loan.
Writing in The Australian on 9 December 2017,192 Sarah Elks said that the announcement of the veto was the “turning point for the election” and she described it as “political gold,” saying the decision diverted attention from green activists. It was politically crucial to Palaszczuk’s career. Her electioneering had been continually hijacked by Stop Adani supporters. By vetoing the loan, Elks wrote, she gained powerful support from the group GetUp (that has over a million members and targets people from all walks of life with its aims to seek wider participation in democracy).
According to Elks, Labor had been holding focus groups across the state, including the North Queensland capital, Townsville. Labor held three seats in Townsville which were under threat from the right-wing political party, One Nation, and the LNP. The focus groups had confirmed these constituents did not want taxpayers’ money going to an ‘Indian billionaire’.
Palaszczuk’s resounding win on 25 November 2017 proved the clout of the Adani issue. Many voters, it seemed, were prepared to vote for whoever stood against the mine. Palaszczuk’s Liberal National Party opponent, Tim Nicholls, had already pledged that under his leadership the Carmichael mine would go ahead. Barnaby Joyce, the blustering National Party MP and then Deputy Prime Minister, gave his own version about Palaszczuk’s motives to The Australian published on 9 November 2017: “I think it’s weak as water. If that’s a conflict of interest then everything that they’ve ever been involved with is [a] conflict of interest. Maybe their relationship is a conflict of interest,” he told the Murdoch newspapers a few days after her announcement.
“Weasel things like that annoy people. You’re getting out of Adani, not because of conflict of interest. You’re trying to get green preferences and [Deputy Premier] Jackie Trad is your conflict of interest, not your partner.”
After the announcement of the veto, Palaszczuk’s relationship with Grabsch only lasted a further three months. On 10 February 2018, the pair, the media dutifully reported, had amicably split.
Chapter 11
The Carbon Bomb is Ticking193
The Galilee Basin, a 247,000 square kilometres thermal coal basin, isolated and around 400 kms inland, is one of the largest untapped coal reserves on the planet. In October 2015, the Queensland Government released the Galilee Basin State Development Area Development Scheme194 to regulate the development of the area. Its strategic vision included facilitating ‘infrastructure corridors’ between the basin and Abbot Point to transport coal for export; it discussed landscaping for mining precincts and its objectives stretch to ‘minimise potential impacts on water quality’. Climate change is not mentioned throughout its bureaucratic jargon as an issue that plays any role in either its strategic vision or objectives. Ensuring we continue to live on a viable planet is not, after all, what the objectives are to mine this wilderness. The short-term goal is, and always has been, to make money.
During 2015–16, Queensland mines produced 242.2 million tonnes of saleable coal through 37 open cut mining operations and 13 underground mines. Asia buys 85% of Queensland coal. The royalties brought in around AU$1.59 billion in the same time period according to the Government Report. And that money has not even started to be earned through the Galilee Basin. The reef, however, as already outlined in this book, has been assessed by Deloitte Access Economics as being worth $6.5 billion per year to the Australian economy.
Nine mega mine projects195 (among them Alpha, GVK Hancock Coal, Hancock Galilee, Macmines Austasia – a Chinese based company – and Palmer’s Waratah Coal) are proposed for the Galilee Basin which will make it the second biggest fossil fuel expansion proposed anywhere in the world after Western China. At the time this book goes to print in July 2018, Adani was the only company to have its application granted. At full production, estimates are that the Galilee Basin projects will double Australian coal exports and produce more than 600 million tonnes a year. Australia is already the biggest net exporter of coal in the world.
As already mentioned earlier, in March 2018, Clive Palmer declared he would be going ahead with his $6.5 billion Waratah Mine later in the year regardless of whether the Adani Carmichael mine begins construction or not. But he will still need a railway line to transport his coal to Abbot Point. According to the Department of State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning website,196 the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) status for the Carmichael rail project is approved for a 310 km standard gauge greenfield rail line connecting the basin with the port. The applicant is Carmichael Rail Network P/L, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani. The Isaac Regional Council and Whitsunday Regional Council are the local governments involved.
In June 2018, the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) announced there were no grounds for an investigation into Adani bankrolling the jobs for local government staff tasked with assessing activities around its mine proposal. The deal involved paying up to $1.15 million in wages, housing and vehicle costs for Isaac Regional Council employees to deal with the ‘extraordinary workload’ created by the Carmichael coal project. The Council has stated it is to spare ratepayers from bearing the brunt of the cost of processing.197 At the time of writing Adani had not paid the Council any money.
Collinsville, 87 kms south-west of Bowen, is in the coal-rich Bowen Basin, which runs almost parallel to the Galilee Basin but is much closer to the coast and more accessible. Collinsville has three coal mines. A rich belt of coal bearing land, it is the largest coal reserve in Australia and produces around 70% of Queensland’s coal. The basin contains almost all of the State’s hard coking coal.198 Queensland’s oldest coal mine, Glencore – Collinsville’s open cut mine – is only four kilometres west of Collinsville and has been operating for more than 100 years. Mining began in Collinsville in 1912. Up until 1921, the town was named Moongunya, an Aboriginal word which means ‘place of coal’.
Entering the town from Route 77, the only road into town from Bowen, coal trains regularly pass by on the adjacent railway line. The town, with a population of around 1500 people has a time-standing-still weariness. You can still buy a house here for $49,000. The corner store has newspaper sandwich boards, which today scream with the Townsville Bulletin moral panic headlines ‘Addicts Swamp Health Services’ and ‘Growing Ice Scourge’. The corner store doubles as a takeaway shop, offering the usual small town fare of hamburgers with chips and s
chnitzels.
A large arresting mural on one building in town is a grim snapshot of mining life. Four miners carry their mate on a stretcher who has a breathing apparatus strapped to his face. Pit ponies, Clydesdale horses that used to haul coal from the underground mines, also feature on another mural. The last one retired to pasture in 1990.
Collinsville is struggling to rid itself of its mantle of coal. But according to John Cole, the director of Australian renewable energy company Edify Energy, the town has the potential to become the solar capital of Australia. In August 2017, the company199 announced it would provide $9.5 million to its 69 MW Whitsunday Solar Farm and RATCH-Australia Corporation’s 43 MW Collinsville Solar Project.
‘Camp Nudja’ is on the Bogie River on the way into Collinsville from Bowen, around 80 kms southwest of Abbot Point. The Townsville Bulletin has described it as a ‘guerilla camp’ whose aim is to train activists. Frontline Action On Coal (FLAC), a movement that started in 2012 out of Australia’s first mine blockade, runs the camp.
A yellow handwritten sign on the gate is the only advertisement: ‘Warning. Trespass is an Offence. Admittance to this property is only by invitation or prior appointment. Authority, High Court of Australia’. The dirt driveway meanders to the headquarters past some small dome tents pegged into the dry scrub. I am invited by Alison Mason, our driver.