Labor has inched closer to resolving its stance on the controversial Adani coalmine as the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, declared he was looking at alternatives to open up the Queensland coal basin and “get these jobs going”.



With federal parliament resuming for the new political year on Monday, the shadow cabinet was expected to discuss policy options on Adani after the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, toughened his rhetoric substantially against the north Queensland mine.

At the same time, Canavan put pressure on the Queensland Labor government to back a proposal from the nation’s largest rail freight operator, Aurizon, to build a rail link in the Galilee Basin to help salvage the Adani project, which the resources minister acknowledged was now “back to square one” in terms of its finance.

Labor is understood to be mulling a number of options to make life more difficult for Adani, including using the impact of the proposed mine on surrounding water resources as a trigger for a new environmental assessment, or using the deterioration of the Great Barrier Reef as a trigger.



Also being considered is the insertion of a “climate trigger” in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which could allow a retrospective and negative assessment of the project in the event Labor wins the next election.

But there are administrative complications with Labor resolving a more hardline position and then subsequently telegraphing it. If Labor ends up adopting the hardline stance Shorten is currently signalling, it will need to be communicated in a way that does not suggest prejudgment of the Adani case, given the likelihood that the company would contest the process in court.

As Labor continues to weigh up its options, the Turnbull government shut down questions about whether there should be an investigation following a report by Guardian Australia last week that Adani submitted an altered laboratory report while appealing a fine for contamination of sensitive wetlands on the Queensland coast near the Great Barrier Reef.

With anti-Adani protestors converging on the parliament for its resumption for 2018 on Monday, both Canavan and the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, said any investigation of that incident was a state responsibility, not a federal one.

Frydenberg told parliament Adani had been subjected to a “most vigorous environmental assessment”, which imposed conditions on the project. He said the proposed mine would create employment for “thousands of people” in regional Queensland.

Canavan declared Labor was making policy about a project important to the economic future of north Queensland in a style of “kneejerk reactionism to win a few votes in Melbourne”.

Shorten’s toughening of his party’s position has coincided with a decision by the Labor MP David Feeney to resign from parliament because he could not demonstrate that he wasn’t a dual citizen – triggering a byelection.

Adani is a hot-button issue in Feeney’s former seat, the electorate of Batman, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, where the Greens have been running a campaign against Labor’s initial support for Adani for months. Labor strategists think there is a strong chance Batman could be lost in the looming byelection to the Greens.

Canavan said Labor’s “duplicitous behaviour” about Adani had damaged the prospect of it going ahead.

The resources minister confirmed that the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility would not be able to provide finance for a $900m concessional loan Adani has sought for a rail line to link the Carmichael mine to the port because the Queensland government had vetoed that proposal.

Canavan said Adani could benefit from another loan application currently before the Naif. Aurizon, the nation’s largest rail freight operator, has also applied for finance for a rail link that could also be used by Adani.

He said the Queensland government could give its support to that proposal. “I just want to get these jobs going,” Canavan told Sky News on Monday. “I want to get more economic activity.”

Canavan said it would be up to the Queensland government if the Aurizon project went ahead. “The ball is in their court.”