The Queensland Australia’s new state government authorized two Indian companies’ intentions to broaden the territory of a port for coal programs that were challenged by environmentalists caring about contamination and damage caused to the Great Barrier Reef. The favorable opinion backing separate mining plans of both Indian companies Adani Enterprises and GVK, appeared surprisingly on Wednesday.
The conservative government that preceded the current Labour government had showed more support to the coal sector. The conservative government overthrown in January with overwhelming majority had advanced a proposal for allocating taxpayers’ funds to support the financing of both a rail line for Adani's Carmichael project and the enlargement of the Abbot Point port positioned in the unexplored Galilee Basin.
Photo: Greenpeace
The enlargement of the port was supposed to include unloading into the sea 3 million cubic meters of soil digged at the port of Abbot Point. That was to happen at about 25 km (15 miles) from the Great Barrier Reef.However, the Australian government made propositions earlier this year to prohibit all Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s dredge dumping because it worried that UNESCO's World Heritage Committee might declare the reef endangered this year. Instead of that the government allowed the Abbot Point’s dumping on land. The government opposed another option under the form of dumping near wetlands. It authorized intentions for dumping the dredge material at the port-on an area allotted for a different coal terminal that was being put aside.
According to a statement by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, he had always backed the accountable and continuous development of the Galilee Basin and Abbot Point. That fact had been proven by the established arrangement. On their part the Adani declared that the new dredge dumping plan should be soon authorized by the federal government after insistence from the state government. Thus Adani Australia CEO Jeyakumar Janakaraj stated that he approved today’s intentions of the government because they showed its primary and initial task of providing economic advancement in Queensland complying with grave environmental rules.Adani's Carmichael plan had been more forward in the development process in comparison to the other GVK's Alpha plan. Adani was anticipating to come to a final funding decision about the plan later this year.
According to state development minister Anthony Lynham the government had to do its best, except supplying financing, to advance the two Galilee Basin projects. Government’s efforts should include for example insisting for federal environmental authorization for the dredge dumping plan within the next four months. In a phone interview for Reuters Lynham mentioned that both projects were very important for Queensland because 4,000 jobs would be provided just from the two mines - the Adani mine and the GVK mine.