It’s been presented as a jobs bonanza for Queensland, but there are fresh questions about Adani’s Carmichael project and the employment it will create in regional Queensland.

It comes after the reemergence of an interview with the Nationals MP, Bridget McKenzie, now the agriculture minister, on Sky News.

In the interview, from late 2018, McKenzie discusses the Carmichael mine and the number of jobs that will be available.

“I think it’s great news they’ll be employing 1,500 through the construction phase and around about 100 in ongoing,” she says.

The figure she cites for ongoing work is a vastly smaller number than anything Adani has ever said publicly.

It is unclear why McKenzie said what she did or where that figure came from.

When asked, McKenzie’s office said her comments were made in November and Adani had since reviewed its numbers.

“The figure placed on the number of jobs that Adani would require for ongoing operations was made in November last year and it is very pleasing to see that Adani have reviewed these figures, indicating that up to 1,800 ongoing positions could be created at their operations, based on other Queensland coal mines of a similar size,” a spokesman said.

“We unequivocally support creating jobs in regional Australia and if Adani say there could be up to 1,800 ongoing jobs resulting from their mine operations, that is a great opportunity for central and northern Queenslanders, their families and their communities.”

What Adani says

The confusion doesn’t end there. Adani, in its latest statements about its job figures says the number of ongoing operational jobs at the mine would not be 1,800, but between 800 and 1,500, based on mines of similar size in Queensland.

A spokeswoman said there would also be “1,500 direct jobs and 6,750 indirect jobs created during ramp up and construction on the Carmichael project”.

Adani has not specified which of these would be associated with construction of the mine and which would be for the rail line from the mine to Abbot Point.

The company’s current jobs forecast is smaller than the 10,000 jobs it originally promoted when it was planning a mine producing 60m tonnes of coal per year (it now plans an output of 10m tonnes), a figure that has regularly been cited by Australian federal MPs.

That 10,000 figure has also been subject of contention since 2015, when Adani’s own consultant told a court the project would create 1,464 jobs at a time the company was still planning the larger mine.

What others say

“Adani has made different jobs promises to different audiences at different times,” Tom Swann, a senior researcher at the Australia Institute, says.

Swann has followed Adani’s jobs claims over many years and compared them to other industries in Queensland.

He cites Australian Bureau of Statistics data that shows the number of jobs in renewable energy in the state almost doubled from 2016 to 2018 to reach more than 5,000. Much of this increase is being driven by large-scale solar and there is more construction in the pipeline.

A 2017 Deloitte report put the number of jobs supported by the Great Barrier Reef, which is under threat from climate change caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, at 64,000.

Swann questioned why Adani’s current jobs forecasts for ongoing work, which the company is basing on mines of similar size, were not more concrete.

“It is unusual they have now declined to make a specific promise about ongoing employment,” he said.

One thing that is clear is that Adani has been posting fresh advertisements for roles since gaining some of the final approvals it needs before preparatory construction can start at the mine. There are currently 14 positions listed on the Adani jobs portal.

On Monday, the Adani Australia Facebook page posted that it was “recruiting for more than 50 jobs as pre-project works ramp up” and encouraged interested workers to email a cover letter and CV.

“We remain committed to Townsville and Rockhampton as the primary hubs of employment for the Carmichael Project, with regions such as the Whitsunday, Isaac, Central Highlands, Mackay, Charters Towers and Gladstone regions also benefiting from our project,” a spokeswoman said.

“The mine will not be automated. We will use the same conventional coal mining techniques and equipment used in other Queensland coal mines.”