Questionable
mining approvals and big donations – that’s ‘Queensland Incorporated’.
The Palmer inquiry is our best chance for transparency
The Clive Palmer-inspired inquiry
into the activities and finances of the Queensland government is far
more than a celebrity face-off between a coal baron turned
parliamentarian and premier Campbell Newman.
It’s the best chance we’ve had in years to shine a light into the dark chambers of “Queensland Incorporated”: the donations, questionable mine approvals and the revolving door of senior staff job-shifting between government and the mining industry.
The environmental regulation of resources industries in Queensland is broken. Not one coal mine has been rejected on environmental grounds after going through the approvals process in the state’s history.
Community concerns have been raised over large political donations from the mining industry and the environmental approvals that appear to follow these donations.
According to the AFR, one former coal-mining tycoon was allegedly granted an approval to amend his environmental authority for maintenance dredging near the Great Barrier Reef just one week after purportedly donating $150,000 to the Queensland LNP. The tycoon in question denies any link.
Campbell Newman has reneged on previous assurances that he wouldn’t support the expansion of the Acland coal mine in southern Queensland. The Queensland LNP and federal Liberal party together have received $700,000 in donations from the owners of the mine between 2010 and 2013.
We have seen the massive Gladstone LNG plants and export terminals on Curtis Island approved without so much as a cost benefit analysis. Local industry and householders will now have to pay world-parity pricing as a result of these approvals. The cost to Australian households has been estimated at $544m a year, while industrial users will have to pay and additional $3.2bn.
Mining industry lobbyists have written environmental policy for the government. The crime and corruption commission has not investigated referrals relating to the approval of CSG projects and the export terminals, saying those issues are “outside its jurisdiction”.
The legislation covering resource projects is so heavily weighted in favour of the proponents that it is virtually impossible for other stakeholders to have their concerns properly addressed.
In September this year we saw an extraordinary move by the Queensland government. At three minutes to midnight, Campbell Newman introduced amendments to the mining laws that effectively stripped away what few rights communities, neighbours and other effected landholders had to object to mining projects.
Other proposed changes will remove the requirements for coal mining companies to obtain water licences for the groundwater they extract during mining operations, thus allowing unsustainable take and posing a major risk to adjoining property holders.
Landholders and local communities are the ones that are paying the price for the state government’s entrenched kowtowing to the mining industry.
Those of us who live in the Sunshine state have been calling for transparency and the opportunity to put Queensland Inc. under the microscope for years. We hope that this inquiry will expose the truth behind a raft of questionable project approvals. Ultimately, we hope it leads to a Royal Commission – and eventually to a more open and accountable government.
It’s the best chance we’ve had in years to shine a light into the dark chambers of “Queensland Incorporated”: the donations, questionable mine approvals and the revolving door of senior staff job-shifting between government and the mining industry.
The environmental regulation of resources industries in Queensland is broken. Not one coal mine has been rejected on environmental grounds after going through the approvals process in the state’s history.
Community concerns have been raised over large political donations from the mining industry and the environmental approvals that appear to follow these donations.
According to the AFR, one former coal-mining tycoon was allegedly granted an approval to amend his environmental authority for maintenance dredging near the Great Barrier Reef just one week after purportedly donating $150,000 to the Queensland LNP. The tycoon in question denies any link.
Campbell Newman has reneged on previous assurances that he wouldn’t support the expansion of the Acland coal mine in southern Queensland. The Queensland LNP and federal Liberal party together have received $700,000 in donations from the owners of the mine between 2010 and 2013.
We have seen the massive Gladstone LNG plants and export terminals on Curtis Island approved without so much as a cost benefit analysis. Local industry and householders will now have to pay world-parity pricing as a result of these approvals. The cost to Australian households has been estimated at $544m a year, while industrial users will have to pay and additional $3.2bn.
Mining industry lobbyists have written environmental policy for the government. The crime and corruption commission has not investigated referrals relating to the approval of CSG projects and the export terminals, saying those issues are “outside its jurisdiction”.
The legislation covering resource projects is so heavily weighted in favour of the proponents that it is virtually impossible for other stakeholders to have their concerns properly addressed.
In September this year we saw an extraordinary move by the Queensland government. At three minutes to midnight, Campbell Newman introduced amendments to the mining laws that effectively stripped away what few rights communities, neighbours and other effected landholders had to object to mining projects.
Other proposed changes will remove the requirements for coal mining companies to obtain water licences for the groundwater they extract during mining operations, thus allowing unsustainable take and posing a major risk to adjoining property holders.
Landholders and local communities are the ones that are paying the price for the state government’s entrenched kowtowing to the mining industry.
Those of us who live in the Sunshine state have been calling for transparency and the opportunity to put Queensland Inc. under the microscope for years. We hope that this inquiry will expose the truth behind a raft of questionable project approvals. Ultimately, we hope it leads to a Royal Commission – and eventually to a more open and accountable government.
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