State Labor’s stance on coal and sand mining developments leads federal government to put environmental approvals on hold

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The prospect of a different future for contentious Queensland projects under a state Labor government has led the federal environment minister to postpone decisions on approvals as the spillover continues around developments linked to corporate donors of the ousted Liberal-National party continues.



Greg Hunt has extended deadlines for his decisions on three projects: expansions of the New Acland coal mine and Abbot Point coal port, and the Aquis casino resort.



A federal environment department spokeswoman said Hunt would not make decisions until he “has had the opportunity to clarify the incoming government’s future intentions”.



“The minister has taken this position on a number of projects in Queensland,” she said.



Labor has said it will repeal laws that allowed a company that campaigned for then-premier Campbell Newman in 2012 to expand sand mining on North Stradbroke Island in alleged violation of native title laws.



The Crime and Corruption Commission rejected a complaint made by Labor in opposition in November and backed by the Quandamooka. The CCC said there was a lack of evidence of a criminal offence by any official.



But the outgoing Labor deputy leader, Tim Mulherin, in a letter last week to the Quandamooka people, North Stradbroke’s traditional custodians, said the LNP laws were “one of the grossest abuses of the parliament and democratic process in Queensland’s history”.



The issue may be revisited as part of Labor in power tasking the CCC with a public inquiry into any connections between political donations and government tenders, contracts and approvals.



Sibelco’s largest Stradbroke mine is subject to a separate continuing investigation by Hunt’s department after operations commenced in 2004 without federal approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Labor has already announced it will scrutinise the then-LNP government’s approval of the Acland expansion the week before Christmas.

It followed $950,000 in donations to the federal Liberal party between 2011 and 2013. The LNP before the 2012 election had said it opposed the expanded mine.

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has pledged to scrap LNP plans for a state investment in a railway to open up the Galilee Basin for another Liberal donor, coal company Adani.

Labor has also said it will end the LNP plan to dump spoil from dredging for Abbot point in the Caley Valley wetlands, and oppose dredging in Great Barrier Reef waters until Adani can demonstrate the financial viability of the project.

A spokeswoman for Hunt described Abbot Point as originally “a Queensland Labor proposal”.

“The federal environment department has written to Queensland officials seeking advice on how the state government wishes to proceed,” she said.

Plans around dredging and shipping traffic for Abbot Point could have implications for Unesco’s decision later this year on whether to list the reef as “in danger” – an international embarrassment that both state Labor and federal Liberal want to avoid.

Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters has asked the Senate to move for an investigation to establish the exact owner of the port following revelations by Fairfax media that Adani’s Australian operations were linked to offshore corporate entities in known tax havens.

The Newman government was supportive of the Aquis casino resort proposal in Cairns but the project hit a snag during probity investigations by state gaming officials.

The officials in November said Aquis had still not provided key information about funding and future cash flows, while the gaming authorities were also yet to finish considering the reputation and making criminal record checks on “Aquis and its associates” in conjunction with local and international policing agencies.

Newman during the election campaign said his government was “determined to do everything possible to ensure the Aquis project proceeds”.