Queensland Greens senator Andrew Bartlett has accused the state’s Labor Party of “deceiving” voters about Indian mining giant Adani’s job claims in order to win the state election at the end of 2017.
Bartlett on Wedensday slammed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s recent criticism of Adani.
“Labor knew the jobs Adani promised were fake well before the election but fed the lie to Queenslanders because they had to pretend they had a plan for regional jobs to win,” the Greens senator said.
“Adani’s wildly exaggerated job figures were exposed long ago, with more and more new mines turning to an automated and casualised workforce.
“So not only were the jobs Annastacia Palaszczuk and Adani promising mostly fake, those that were on offer were mostly temporary or unreliable: the opposite of what communities regional Queensland need after the last mining bust.”
Prior to the state election, Labor representatives toured the Galilee Basin region, in part to promote the benefits of Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine for the region’s workforce.
But a week before the election, the premier announced her Government would veto a Federal Government loan which would facilitate construction of a rail line for the project.
Adani earlier this year tore up its mining contracts with Downer, saying the election outcome, and subsequent veto, meant it would have to advance on Carmichael as an owner-operator.
This week, the re-elected premier called on Adani to prove it was serious about Carmichael, after Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten said the Indian energy giant was promising “fake jobs” to Queenslanders.
“Other companies meet their milestones and it is up to Adani to demonstrate to the people of this state that those jobs are forthcoming,” Palaszczuk said.
“Some of those milestones appear not to have been met. It all hinges on getting the finance, so it is up to the company to get the finance. That project needs to stack up financially, just as every other resource company investing in Queensland needs to stack up.”
Bartlett encouraged voters not to buy what the premier is selling, however.
“Queensland Labor need to abandon the false promises of new coal mines and embrace the tens of thousands of job opportunities waiting in major renewable energy generation projects, local infrastructure, health and social services, and mining rehabilitation,” the Greens senator said.
“With the Batman by-election looming, this is a reminder that you can’t trust what Labor says in the lead-up to an election.”