The billionaire Indian businessman behind the controversial Carmichael mine proposal personally asked Malcolm Turnbull to pass a law that would prohibit Australians from seeking judicial review of environmental approvals for major projects, such as his $15 billion coal mine, rail and port project in Queensland.
According to a report in Fairfax today, Gautam Adani met with the Prime Minister last week and urged him to pass such a law, which would protect projects such as his from being challenged on environmental grounds.
Of course, Adani needn’t have bothered. As Crikey revealed last month, Turnbull is already pressing ahead with the Abbott-era so called “green lawfare” changes — an amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that would prevent third parties such as green groups from challenging environmental approvals for major projects. It had previously been assumed that Turnbull would drop the proposed amendment as part of a move away from Tony Abbott’s more combative, culture warrior style of leadership.
Nothing says agility and innovation more than digging coal out of the ground with the help of taxpayer subsidies and a legislated protection racket!
Is Mr Adani aware that Anglo American has four coal mines for sale in Oz?
But wait, there’s more! Today an announcement Anglo American is cutting mining staff by 85,000 worldwide. A sharp mind would twig that mining is not as profitable as it once was. Seems like Mr Adani should review his original Carmichael business plan.
Turnbull has been complicit in botching our NBN hence potentially blighting our environment comes as no shock.
So Turnbull is as much for sale as his predecessor was? Guess he thought we might be fooled by Monday’s innovation announcements. Business as usual – corporates don’t need the ISDS provisions in the TPP to protect them from citizen’s rights when they can just go straight to the PM>
What a great innovative corporate citizen? Who does he think he is? Rupert Murdoch.
It was inevitable that those – casting no nasturtiums – who believed MalTalcum was the messiah would be disappointed.
However, I am surprised by the speed with which he has disabused even the most besotted of any notion that he would be other than a biddable servant of Mammon.
The definition of an honest politician as one who stays bribed but SilverMal didn’t even wait.
AR…I agree!
So let me get this straight…the government is about to sign the TPP which will give big corporations the right to sue our government for who knows what…
While at the same time making it impossible (green lawfare) for the citizen’s groups to sue these big corporations for ANYTHING!
Well done Talcum Malcum!!