Queensland department of environment to allege that document contained false and misleading information about land disturbances

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Queensland government has started prosecution proceedings in relation to information in Adani’s annual return for its Carmichael mine.

The Queensland government’s department of environment and science has commenced legal proceedings against Adani Mining under the Environmental Protection Act over claims it provided false or misleading information in its 2017/2018 annual return.

“The annual return requires information about planned and actual disturbance of land at the mine,” a spokesman for the department said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The department alleges that Adani’s annual return contained false and misleading information about the disturbance already undertaken at the mine during the annual return period.”

The matter is listed for mention at the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 16 August 16.

Adani says the department’s prosecution is over an “administrative error” which was self-reported in September 2018.

There is no environmental harm and all relevant works were “legal and fully complied with our project conditions”, an Adani spokeswoman said in a statement.

The company will participate in relevant legal processes required to resolve the matter, she said.

“Improvements to internal processes were introduced at the time the administrative error was discovered and reported by us to ensure paperwork errors of this nature are avoided in the future.”

The prosecution comes just a day after it was revealed Adani wrote to the federal environment department asking for the names of government scientists from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia working on a review of the mine’s groundwater management plan.