The Minister for Energy and for Northern Australia, Josh Frydenberg, has taken a very different view from his predecessor on whether Adani’s Carmichael mine could be a beneficiary of funding from the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
Speaking on ABC Radio National Breakfast Mr Frydenberg said Adani’s Carmichael coal mine “is a commercial project… it needs to stand on its own two feet... It wouldn't be a priority (for Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility funding)”.
“ACF is encouraged by Minister Frydenberg’s comments,” said ACF’s CEO Kelly O’Shanassy.
“Adani’s Galilee Basin coal mine fantasies should definitely not be financed by Australian taxpayers.
“In fact there are 12 billion reasons why this mine should not go ahead at all.
“If this mine is dug, it will suck around 12 billion litres of water a year from the Galilee Basin, wreck the habitat of endangered wildlife and the coal from the mine will be shipped across the Barrier Reef to be burnt in other countries, escalating the world’s climate problem.
“ACF was extremely concerned when Abbott government ministers suggested the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, which was established in this year’s federal budget, could be used to support the Adani project.
“That would have seen the fund become a ‘Dirty Energy Finance Corporation’ for Northern Australia,” Ms O’Shanassy said.
“In August the Federal Court set aside Environment Minister Hunt’s original approval of Adani’s Carmichael proposal.
“Tens of thousands of ACF supporters from all over Australia have written to Minister Hunt, asking him to reject the Carmichael mine once and for all.
“ACF urges Environment Minister Greg Hunt to do the right thing, not make a decision that goes against the interests of the Australian people and the health of our landscape and wildlife.”
