Antinuclear

Behind closed doors, South Australian govt and uranium miners do Indenture Act deal

BHP’s Marius Kloppers flies in to meet Premier, Adelaide Now, by:State editor Greg Kelton ,October 27, 2011  IN his last week as premier, Mike Rann flew to Melbourne to negotiate the Olympic Dam expansion with BHP boss Marius Kloppers.

But this week the BHP Billiton chief executive will fly to Adelaide to meet new Premier Jay Weatherill to discuss progress on the mine expansion indenture. The face-to-face meeting follows a telephone discussion at the weekend between Mr Weatherill and Mr Kloppers and a meeting yesterday between Mr Weatherill and BHP Billiton’s president (uranium customer sector group) Dean Dalla Valle…..

Legislation to ratify the agreement was introduced in Parliament last week by former treasurer Kevin Foley, who was minister assisting the Premier on the dam expansion….. On Tuesday the Liberal party room completed two days of briefings on the Olympic Dam project. It will have a joint party room meeting on November 8 to decide its position on the indenture.

The Greens yesterday accused the Government of turning scrutiny of the Olympic Dam indenture into a farce.

Greens leader Mark Parnell said a special parliamentary committee, which has to examine the agreement, was planning to hear from only three witnesses and prevent the media and public from attending the hearings.

Mr Parnell said the only groups invited to present evidence to the committee were the Government, BHP-Billiton and the Chamber of Mines.

“No advertising has been done and the hearings are set to be held behind closed doors,” he said, accusing the Government and Opposition of concocting the committee process. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/bhp-flies-in-to-meet-premier/story-e6frede3-1226177764951

October 27, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, South Australia | South Australia