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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has called on the federal government to re-establish the select Parliamentary Committee inquiry into taxpayer subsidies being provided for green activist interference in local project approvals.
This comes after a WikiLeaks email revealed that parties from the US have been funding the greens battle against the A$21.7-billion Carmichael coal mine, being developed by Indian firm Adani, in Queensland.
Reports emerged over the weekend that interests in the US had been covertly funding anticoal activists in Australia, with the funds channelled through nongovernmental organisation (NGO), the Sunrise Project.
It is claimed that the Sunrise Project offered local traditional owner groups financial support and scholarships if they opposed the Carmichael project, with the leaked emails revealing attempts to hide the source of the funding from the Australian Parliament.
The emails originated from the Sunrise Project’s John Hepburn and were sent to US Democratic party Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairperson John Podesta.
The QRC noted that a revived Parliamentary Committee inquiry should look into possible abuses of tax deductibility status such as the concerning claim by the NGO Human Rights Watch that it could lend its tax deductibility status to green activist groups.
“Whether they like it or not, Australian taxpayers are being taken for a ride by a sophisticated local and foreign network of green activist groups and their rich-list local and foreign funders,” said QRC CEO Michael Roche.
Hepburn has meanwhile said the mining lobby has seized on the leaked email in order to attack conservationists.
“The mining industry has a habit of using its wealth and access to get what it wants. That is why it is so anxious about national and international financial support for environmental groups who are highlighting the damage an expansion of coal mining will cause.
“The mining industry has too much influence over our politicians. It is time that Australia’s approach to climate change was determined by the science and by the community rather than by the lobbying power of foreign-owned mining companies like Adani.
“With the urgent need to cut greenhouse pollution, it is reckless for Australian governments to be expanding fossil fuels. We need a moratorium on new coal mines and to embrace the opportunities clean energy will bring,” Hepburn said.
The Queensland government recently invoked special power to progress the Carmichael coal and rail project, declaring it “critical” infrastructure and renewing the “prescribed project” status.
The proposed Carmichael project will comprise an opencut and underground mine, running for a period of 90 years and producing an average 60-million tonnes a year of thermal coal.
The project, which will be Australia’s largest thermal coal mine, has been the subject of numerous court battles, the latest by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), which lodged an appeal against a Federal Court decision in August that the approval of the Carmichael mine had been lawful.
The initial proceedings had been launched by a member of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, arguing that a determination made in April 2015 by the National Native Title Tribunal, relating to the proposed granting of two mining leases, was made incorrectly. It argued that the approval of mining leases would extinguish native title over parts of their lands.
The ACF is seeking an appeal on the grounds that the coal mine will have an impact on global warming and the Great Barrier Reef.