Exclusive: Despite official denials, emails reveal discussions about the Indian company’s requests before ministers wrote to a Chinese agency vouching for the $16bn project

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Adani asked the Australian government to help secure funding for its controversial Carmichael coalmine, documents obtained under Freedom of information reveal. Two government ministers subsequently wrote to a Chinese government agency vouching for the proposed coalmine.

One email sent to Chinese and Indian embassy staff had a subject line reading “update on project financing request”, while another talked about how Adani needed support with financing talks in China.

Australian ministers write to China to confirm approval of Carmichael mine Read more

The revelation comes despite the secretary of the department of foreign affairs and trade telling parliament that: “It has not been Dfat’s role to seek finance for the project”. The attorney general, George Brandis, told parliament the purpose of the letter, co-authored by the then deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, was simply to confirm the project had received all its environmental approvals.



Questions over Dfat’s role in brokering loans for a foreign mining company is further complicated by the department revealing it met with the Korean Export-Import Bank in 2016, ostensibly “to clarify the status of federal environmental approvals granted for the Carmichael project” – the same reasons given for the approach made to the Chinese agency.

The documents were so heavily redacted that it is not possible to know whether Dfat bureaucrats supported the letter being sent by the ministers. But they reveal the department was very clear about the purpose of such a letter being written about the Queensland coalmine project.

“It seems strange that the government would say that both representations to China and to Korea merely outlined Adani’s environmental approvals, given that they knew, at least in the case of the Chinese letter, that they were helping secure Chinese financing,” said Tom Swann from the Australia Institute, who made the FOI request.

“And it seems strange that the Dfat secretary says it was not their role to help secure financing from projects,” Swann said. “Here we have internal documents from Dfat showing that they knew the purpose of the letter was to secure Chinese financing.”

The existence of the letter, written by Joyce and trade minister Steven Ciobo on 8 September, was revealed during questioning in Senate estimates in October 2017.

Following up the revelation, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, asked: “Have any requests for financial assistance been made of any type?”

Dfat’s secretary, Frances Adamson, responded “no”, and after further questioning said: “It has not been Dfat’s role to seek finance for the project.”

Play Video 1:13 Dfat denies they assisted Adani secure financing – video

But a string of emails reveal Adani approached Dfat with an explicit request to help it secure funding from Chinese agencies – a request that was then circulated to numerous posts around the world, and between senior diplomats.

One email was sent from Canberra to Chinese and Indian embassy staff with the subject line “China: Adani’s Carmichael coal project – update on project financing request”.

Another email, with recipients including first assistant secretary Kathy Klugman, , said Adani had “reiterated” that a letter of support was “needed to secure and cut through financing negotiations in China”.

In line with the letter that was eventually sent, the email also says Adani “expects [a] letter of support to formalise already public affirmations by [the] Australian Government, highlight the national significance of Adani’s investment”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Excerpt of an email sent between officials at Dfat on 15 August 2017 about a letter of support requested by Adani to help finance negotiations with China. Photograph: The Australia Institute

And in notes from a meeting with the chief executive of Adani Australia, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, Dfat notes that Adani had requested the letter “to help secure Chinese finance”.

That note also says the requested recipient of the letter was China’s powerful national development and reform commission, to whom the eventual letter from Joyce and Ciobo was addressed.

One of the email chains appears to have been initiated by Patrick Suckling, Australia’s ambassador for the environment. Suckling was formerly Australia’s high commissioner to India, where he championed the Carmichael project.

Excerpt of a Dfat briefing about a letter of support requested by Adani. Photograph: The Australia Institute

George Brandis, attorney general at the time, did not deny during those Senate hearings that the letter was intended to help broker a loan, but instead characterised it as a letter outlining the government’s support for the project.

“In the case of the Adani Group Carmichael mine project, the government has made representations to dispel the misinformation campaign of those from the radical left who want to stop the project,” he told the Senate.

“The Australian government has written to the government of China to confirm that the project has received all necessary Queensland state government and Australian government environmental and mining approvals.”

The revelations raise questions about whether similar approaches to Korean agencies may have been made by Dfat in the aid of brokering loans.

In answers to a question on notice by Di Natale, Dfat revealed that Adani had requested Dfat meet with the Korea Export-Import Bank “to clarify the status of federal environmental approvals granted for the Carmichael project”.

In response to a question by Senator Nick Xenophon, Dfat confirmed it had done what Adani requested, and had the meeting in October 2016.

Dfat declined to answer a series of questions about the revelations, and instead provided the following statement: “DFAT has made no representations to secure financing for the Adani project.”

Brandis’ office was approached by Guardian Australia for comment but has not responded.