Just like any other country that has implemented the Right to Information law, Australia too has not hesitated to keep secret, information of vital public interest. Information sought under Australia’s RTI, pertaining to the copy of the ‘agreement’ between Gautam Adani’s company regarding the $16 billion investment and Australia’s Queensland Treasury, has been denied. In the meanwhile, massive, organised protests by hundreds of social forums continue across Australia, as a sequel to the government giving the nod recently for this controversial mining project, purported to be one of the biggest in the world.
Gautam Adani’s Carmichael Mining Project in Queensland, to be developed over one lakh acres, includes construction of a 310 kms rail line and would adversely affect thousands of acres of flora, fauna and, most importantly, the Great Barrier Reef.
The highlight of the controversy is the protest with hashtag #stopAdani challenge over the one billion dollar money that has been allegedly given by the Australian government as loan for building Adani’s coal-carting rail network from ecologically sensitive Galillee Basin to the Great Barrier Reef. Earlier, the Australian government had publicly stated that the Adani project would have to stand on its own feet.
The Australian Conservation Foundation, which is spearheading the anti-Adani campaign, states in its website, “…but our public money is not a slush fund for a dodgy company's climate-wrecking project with a dead end future.”
Recently, renowned Energy consultant, Adam Walters, who was part of the Australia Research Institute team studying the employment and economic impact of coalmines in that country, invoked RTI for procuring a copy of the agreement between Adani’s company and the Queensland Treasury, besides other information pertaining to this project. A news report on 1 August 2017 in The Guardian, which has been closely following this issue, has stated that “almost all the information was either refused or redacted”.
Some of the documents which Walters procured showed that government officers of the Queensland Treasury and Queensland Natural Sources department were making desperate efforts to explain the economic benefits of the project and some wanted to just keep away due to the controversy getting political. (
Read full report of The Guardian here:)
A report from Australian Conservation Foundation says, “As the world works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will need to burn less coal. As a result, the world will need less coal mines. In the lead up to the Paris climate talks in December 2015, President Anote Tong of Kiribati and other Pacific leaders called for a global moratorium on new coal mines and the expansion of existing coal mines. Coal industry lobbyists and some political leaders in Australia claim that a coal moratorium ‘would spell economic and social catastrophe for Queensland and the national economy’. However, economic modelling conducted for this report shows that the economic impacts of a moratorium — on Queensland, New South Wales (NSW) and Australia more broadly — would be small. The coal industry employs less than 0.4% of the Australian workforce and its royalties contribute just 2% of revenue to the NSW and Queensland budgets. A moratorium on building new coal mines and expanding existing ones would allow for a gradual phase out of the industry, which would in turn minimise the social and economic adjustment associated with worldwide commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Australian governments have already given approval for coal mines to produce for decades into the future.”
As per the report, employment generation in coalmines is negligible. “As the coal industry is capital intensive, and a small employer, the impact of a moratorium on building new coal mines on employment in Australia is even smaller than the impact on GDP. While the impact on employment is so small as to be imperceptible in the main chart, the difference in employment peaks at 0.04% in 2030, before the gap closes again as more labour intensive industries expand,” it added.
“Too often, economic modelling is used to present the coal industry as a large and important part of our economy and state budgets. Public debate is then skewed by lobbyists and leaders using modelling results with minimal discussion of how they were derived and the context they should be seen in.”
“Official statistics show that the coal industry employs few Australians, accounts for a small portion of government revenues and works mainly in the interests of its overseas owners. Our modelling exercise shows that for the Australian economy and community, the impacts of a phase-out of the coal industry would be minimal. Australia can and should impose a moratorium on new coal mines and mine expansions, as part of climate and wider environmental policy, and should expect minimal economic disruption from doing so,” the Report from Australian Conservation Foundation added.
According to the records of the proceedings of 24 May 2017, during the first session of the 55th Parliament, Adani’s project was the main issue discussed.
How come mum’s the word in India in the Parliament as well as in the media when Australia is agog with this controversy that claims to give thousands of jobs – totally exaggerated say Australian NGOs and media.
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005, and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book, “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte”, with Vinita Kamte, and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)
