Adani: Chinese Government denies receiving application to fund Carmichael mine, ABC News, 30 Nov 17, By Stephen Long, As Adani angles for Chinese money for its giant coal mine in North Queensland, China’s Australian embassy has made clear that any backing from Chinese state enterprises would need central government approval.
Senior embassy officials have also told opponents of the mining venture that no applications for funding have been made, despite Adani insiders claiming recently that finance from China had been secured.
Over the past month, businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins and prominent investment banker Mark Burrows, AO, have held talks with Chinese embassy officials in Canberra to lobby against Adani’s Australian project, amid reports Adani was close to finalising a deal for Chinese backing.
“Myself and Mark Burrows went to see senior officials from the Chinese embassy; we explained that China might think that Australians supported the Adani mine and we gave them a lot of evidence that that was not the case,” Mr Cousins told the ABC.
“The Chinese embassy was very forthright in saying that investment from a Chinese corporation would require the approval of the central government and that also no such proposal had been put.”……….
Chinese funding for the project is becoming more critical as prospects for a subsidised loan of up to $1 billion from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for the mine railway fade.
The Labor Party, which looks likely to form a government in Queensland, has pledged to effectively veto the loan.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, which has secured at least one seat in the state parliament, is also opposed to the loan.
29 Nov 17, Today the Lower House of the SA Parliament passed my Greens Private Members Bill to remove the clause in the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000 that allowed the Government to spend public money on spruiking the benefits of an international high-level nuclear waste dump in SA.
That means that this will now become South Australian law as it has passed both Houses of the SA Parliament.
The Government will no longer be able to spend public money on pursuing an international nuclear waste dump.
With the focus now on fighting the Turnbull Federal Government’s plans for an intermediate-level nuclear waste dump in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges, it’s important to show your opposition to these plans. Come along to the “Don’t Dump on SA Rally” at 11am this Saturday, 2 December 2017 on the steps of Parliament House.
I will be speaking at the rally, outlining the Greens position on this important issue.
The Greens stand with the people of South Australia who choose a nuclear-free future for our State.
I also suspect that the federal Labor opposition may now adopt a position against the Adani project, in light of Queensland’s state election result.
I suspect that the Adani project is already a stranded asset, and definitely not worthy of either Australian taxpayer support or Chinese investment.
The Queensland election outcome is a death knell for Adani’s coal mine https://theconversation.com/the-queensland-election-outcome-is-a-death-knell-for-adanis-coal-mine-88148John Hewson The coal mine proposed for Queensland’s Galilee Basin by Indian mining giant Adani has been a moveable feast, with many stories about its scale, purpose, financing, job prospects, and commerciality. The prospect of a return of the Palaszczuk government in Queensland is effectively the death knell for the project.
Mining industry body retreats from hardline stance on charities, Minerals Council pulls previous support for policies limiting advocacy by environmental charities, Guardian Michael Slezak, 28 Nov 17, Australia’s mining industry has stepped back from its hard line on trying to limit the charity sector’s lobbying on energy and climate change issues.
The Minerals Council of Australia says it does not support policies requiring environmental charities to devote most of their resources to on-the-ground remediation, despite previously writing submissions to government calling for it to consider such policies.
Although the new stance seems to contradict earlier statements, the MCA insists there has been no change in its position.
The move comes amid fractures between the MCA’s membership over the tough approach, with BHP recently publicly distancing itself from the MCA’s position on activity requirements for environmental charities.
“They’ve over-reached in bashing-up on civil society, coal and climate and energy issues,” said Rod Campbell from the Australia Institute, who pressured the MCA to clarify its position. “They’ve gone rogue and they’re being pulled back – and that’s a good thing.”……..
Now, in a letter to Transparency International, the MCA has unequivocally said it does not support the moves it previously appeared to advocate for, writing:
However, the MCA does not support the government’s proposal to require environmental deductible gift recipients to commit no less than 25% and up to 50% of their annual expenditure to environmental remediation as referenced in your email………
The MCA has also been campaigning for all charities who receive foreign donations not to be allowed to take part in political advocacy during election campaigns. The Coalition has said it will introduce legislation before the end of the year that will do that.
Queensland election: how Adani helped undo the LNP’s push to regain power
Exit polls in the state’s south-east found up to 70% of respondents were against the billion-dollar rail line loan for Adani, Guardian, Amy Remeikis, 27 Nov 17, It was the sleeper issue that ended up dominating the Queensland election campaign – and, in the end, activists believed, may have saved government for Labor.
Among those were Maiwar, the electorate held by the shadow treasurer, Scott Emerson, who looks to have lost largely due to Greens preferences, along with other LNP-held inner-city seats such as Mount Ommaney and Mansfield, which both look to have fallen to Labor.
Exit polls commissioned by GetUp in those electorates found up to 70% of respondents were against the billion-dollar rail line loan for Adani, while another 30% said Labor’s decision to veto the loan helped decide how they would vote.
“We already know the majority of voters from every single party at play opposed the Naif loan, including LNP and One Nation voters,” the GetUp environmental justice director, Sam Regester, told Guardian Australia. “Taking a stronger position against Adani clearly contributed to the swing in south-east Queensland. Just as tellingly, Labor held on to the regional seats that folks like conservative analysts predicted would fall because of the veto.”…….
Regester said that..voters in the south-east, particularly, saw a point of difference.
“The strong showing of the Greens, particularly in south Brisbane and Maiwar, showed more than anything the value of having the clearest, strongest policy on Adani,” he said. “ For most of the last term of government, the two major parties were equally bad on this key issue, so it’s no wonder they picked up a swag of votes.
“Labor was able to offset this somewhat with the Naif veto but this election made it clear that the Greens can be a threat to both major parties when they’re not up to scratch, particularly on Adani.”……..
Under the Naif rules, the states need to give approval for the loan. On Sunday, Palaszczuk confirmed she would stand by the veto decision. She also committed Labor to not allowing any taxpayer funds to flow to the mine, or its associated infrastructure, although has refused to give details of the royalty holiday granted to Adani, worth about $350m, which she said would be paid back with interest.
“We will veto the loan, they said on the 6th of June that they had the green light that they would build the mine and the rail line and we expect them to get on with it,” a Palaszczuk spokesman said.
The future of Adani now rests on whether it can receive financing to begin construction in the Galilee Basin, with some reports it may be close to securing Chinese money to open the mine. That has the potential to create another issue for the Queensland government, be it the LNP or Labor, as both have said they remain in support of the mine for the jobs it will create, with the Chinese funds potentially coming with Chinese labourer and steel strings attached.
GetUp have not finished fighting the project and Regester said Labor’s position was “still nowhere good enough” and a potential issue for the next federal election.
Current polling from Galaxy puts the ALP on track to win the required 47 seats for a majority, but as the Brisbane Courier-Mail reports, this will hinge on a number of factors, including unpredictable preference flows from One Nation supporters.
As at the federal level, politics in Queensland has been heavily focused on energy in the run-up to Saturday’s poll.
The Labor Palaszczuk government – which has a 50 per cent RET by 2030 for the state – has been campaigning strongly around renewables, with a particular focus on increasing rooftop solar uptakeas a way to cut power costs for businesses and homes around the state.
The new policies, launched in late October as part of the Palaszczuk government’s $2 billion Affordable Energy Plan, will offer no-interest loans to consumers wishing to invest in rooftop solar and battery storage, but lacking the up-front capital to do so.
They will also work to give landlords and renters equal access to solar, through a trial initially involving 1000 rental households. Queensland energy minister Mark Bailey said the rental solar scheme had the potential to save tenants up to 10 per cent off their annual bill, or up to $150 a year, while landlords could get a rebate of up to $520 per year.
On large-scale renewables, as we reported here, Labor, has promised to follow through on a program already underway to underwrite 400MW of renewable energy projects.
Following on from this, it has committed to support a further 1000MW of renewable energy projects via a new government power company; and to look to construct new transmission infrastructure in Northern Queensland that would unlock a vast new province of wind, solar and hydro power projects.
On the other side of the political divide, the LNP conservative coalition that is seeking to replace the current Labor government has made its intentions on energy clear: the end of renewables incentives; government money for a new coal generator in north Queensland; and support for the Adani coal mine.
The LNP is also claiming a huge reduction in consumer bills: $160 a year for two years, followed by savings of up to $460 a year in 2020.
But this is largely a mirage, as energy analyst Hugh Grant has pointed out. He noted that the only parties with policies that would deliver price reductions were the Greens, and Labor.
Not that Queenslanders got to read about that anywhere – apart from RenewEconomy, the local media refused to publish the results, as Michael West points out in this piece.
In the Conservative corner in the fight for new coal is federal minister for resources and northern Australia, Matt Canavan, who – recently restored to his portfolio – is as keen as ever to use the federal government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to help fund a new coal-fired power plant in Queensland’s north, as well as to get the Adani coal mine and port project off the ground.
One Nation is also keen to build a coal-fired power station west of Townsville, with party leader Pauline Hanson pledging to commit $1.5 billion to the project, which she wants built in Collinsville – a former coal hub of the state that is more recently turning to large-scale solar.
In fact, according to data gathered for RE’s Renewable Energy Index, the North Queensland region has more power generating capacity under construction than the entire state of NSW, and almost as much as Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia combined.
Meanwhile, Queensland home and business owners are leading the country – which in turn is leading the world – in rooftop solar uptake.
A Climate Council report last month showed that almost one third (31.6 per cent) of all Queensland homes now have solar panels, which puts the state ahead of South Australia, at 30.5 per cent, and Western Australia at 25.4 per cent.
What’s more, there are 14 postcodes in the Sunshine State alone where more than 50 per cent of households have rooftop solar, including the the Moreton Bay region town of Elimbah, where an impressive 63 per cent of homes have PV panels on their roofs.
The Australian Solar Council – newly rebranded as the Smart Energy Council – aren’t resting on their laurels, though. The peak solar industry body is spooked enough about a possible LNP victory that is has launched its own major election campaign, urging voters to put the Coalition last.
“Queensland voters face a stark choice at the election tomorrow,” the SEC said in an email to members on Friday:
“A new polluting coal-fired power station or a solar thermal plant providing 24-hour solar power; no new large-scale renewables and massive job losses or 1,000 megawatts of new large-scale renewable projects in regional Queensland; and a National Energy Guarantee that delivers the longest solar eclipse in history or sensible national energy policy.”
A National Energy Guarantee could be bad news for the ACT, Canberra Times, Katie Burgess , 24 Nov 17, A National Energy Guarantee could risk years of ACT energy policy and force Canberrans to pay more, ACT climate change minister Shane Rattenbury has warned.
The Greens minister met with his state and federal counterparts at the COAG Energy Council meeting in Hobart on Thursday and Friday.
But Mr Rattenbury said he was concerned that the guarantee would “stymie” new sources of renewable energy, the emission targets were too low, the agreement too short and the modelling was tailored to “inflate the apparent cost-savings”.
He also said an “artificially suppressed” wholesale price would impact on the contract-for-difference model the ACT used as part of its plan to go 100 per cent renewable by 2020.
Through its reverse auctions, ActewAGL pays each large-scale renewable energy generator the difference between their feed-in tariff and the current wholesale price per megawatt hour.
However when wholesale prices are higher than the feed-in tariff, the generator pays ActewAGL and the savings are passed onto customers.
That model has insulated Canberra customers from future price rises.
But if the wholesale price was pushed down, Mr Rattebury said the ACT could pay more.
“We are concerned it will suppress artificially prices in the wholesale market and we believe the wholesale market is an effective means of driving good energy outcomes so the transition across to a certificate-based approach we think distorts the price signalling effect the labour wholesale market is designed to operate,” Mr Rattenbury told a stakeholder meeting.
“As a jurisdiction it’s particularly problematic for us because we have set ourselves on a pathway that’s premised on having an effective wholesale price. For our consumers it’s going to represent a potentially significant cost increase because of the way our electricity contracts are set for the next 20 years.”………
The federal government chose not to adopt the Clean Energy Target recommended by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, instead opting for a National Energy Agreement which would require energy retailers to meet a reliability and emissions guarantee.
The reliability guarantee compels retailers to make a proportion of electricity available from “dispatchable” sources like batteries, hydro or gas, that can be switched on when demand is high.
The emissions guarantee requires retailers to cut their greenhouse emissions by 26 per cent on 2005 by 2030.
The energy guarantee won’t apply to Western Australia and the Northern Territory, meaning those two jurisdictions will have no federal emissions reduction policy after the Renewable Energy Target is scrapped in 2020.
The ACT and South Australia called on the federal government to model the cost of a Clean Energy Target and a Renewable Energy Target as well but they refused.
Mr Rattenbury that was “deeply concerning”.
“We know the National Energy Guarantee is the fourth or fifth best choice because that’s what the backbench watered it down to.
It is notable that as late as two days before Australia’s energy ministers gathered in Hobart, the Turnbull government was still hoping to secure in-principle support for its national energy guarantee.
“Expecting us to sign up was a ridiculous proposition,” Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s energy minister told Fairfax Media, adding there was a “massive pushback” against such undue haste.
So it’s perhaps no wonder the resulting COAG communique was unusually thin.
Indeed, the first pass at modelling the vaguely outlined policy was only completed and shared a few days earlier. Modelling can be made to do almost whatever you want it to do. That’s especially the case when the modeller – in this case, Frontier Economics – wasn’t commissioned to compare outcomes for other schemes.
South Australia and the ACT tried to have the Energy Security Board – which is supposed to answer to all COAG members but so far has served as chief cheerleader of the guarantee – expand the next stage of modelling to consider other options.
While on the face of it a reasonable request, the bid stirred anger from at least one other state because Josh Frydenberg, the environment and energy minister, would never have got such a proposal near his partyroom for approval.
More number crunching in any case may not be the answer – at least, not until the design of the two elements of the guarantee to curb emissions and boost reliability are better defined.
A better approximation of the market distortions caused by relying on the electricity retailers to carry the guarantee obligations – rather than generators, as other programs such as an emissions intensity scheme, would require – may also reveal smaller savings for consumers than being touted.
Closer scrutiny of the guarantee modelling to date only fans doubts.
As South Australia’s Tom Koutsantonis notes, renewable energy schemes of Victoria and Queensland have largely been ignored, while the massive Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro scheme that hasn’t passed a feasibility study is assumed as operating.
The emissions trajectory also falls far short of what has otherwise been projected for the electricity sector – an industry that accounts for about a third of Australia’s carbon pollution.
As Dylan McConnell of Melbourne University notes, the modelling to date has been based on sector emissions for the National Electricity Market, totalling 1352 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent for 2021 to 2030.
Separate work by the government’s Climate Change Authority last year, however, projected electricity sector emissions of 1600 MT of CO2 for the whole 2020-50 period, and included Western Australia and the Northern Territory in that total.
Compared with the Authority’s work then, the national energy guarantee would leave less than two years’ of current power sector emissions for the entire 20 years after 2030, he says.
It really does look like there’s a lot more work to be done.
no amount of corporate black washing – including Indigenous participation plans that champion strong and effective relationships between Adani and W&J, alongside jobs and traineeships – can hide Adani’s direct and immediate part in walking over the rights of Traditional Owners.
Traditional Owners Expose Adani’s Relentless Pursuit of W&J Country, New Matilda By Kristen Lyonson
In the third in a five part series on the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine, Kristen Lyons looks at a deal struck between the miners and the local traditional owners, and why it just adds to the smell that pervades the entire project.
Introduction
The Indian industrial conglomerate, Adani Enterprises – well known for environmental damage and human rights abuses at its project sites around the world, and built upon a complex business structure with tax havens in the Cayman Islands – entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of coal tenements in the Galilee Basin, in Central Queensland.
Despite its controversial back story, some of which has only come to light since approvals were granted for its Australian project, Adani quickly rose to become a poster child for the State Government, based on promises its Carmichael mine project would deliver jobs and economic growth for regional Queensland.
Managed by its domestic arm, Adani Mining Pty Ltd, over the following years it developed a project proposal that included a coalmine, as well as rail and port infrastructure, thereby opening up the massive Galilee Basin for coal exports.
With seven years gone since acquisition of the coal tenements, and marred by substantial project downsizing, Adani is yet to start construction of its mega mine. Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Family Councils’ (W&J) defiant opposition to Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine has been central to this delay; opposition that has, in itself, exposed the dirty deeds Adani is willing to perpetrate against Traditional Owners who seek to defend their right to say no to a mine that would destroy their country.
This article exposes some of Adani’s deeds, including its nefarious actions in reaching an ‘agreement’ with Traditional Owners, Continue reading →
Queensland election: Palaszczuk refuses to rule out Adani mine road upgrade funding, ABC, By Chris O’Brien, 23 Nov 17, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has not ruled out helping central Queensland councils upgrade roads for Adani’s planned Carmichael mine.
Ms Palaszczuk previously stated that taxpayers’ money would not be provided for the mine.
The Greens outline their balance of power demands, Brisbane Times, By Felicity Caldwell, 23 Nov 17, Banning cash-for-access meetings, scrapping the royalty holiday to Adani and $1 public transport fares will be among the Greens’ demands if the party holds the balance of power in the Queensland Parliament.
Fairfax Media can reveal the list of seven key demands from the minor party ahead of Saturday’s state election………
The Greens’ negotiating demands are:
Ban corporate donations and cash-for-access meetings
End the social housing waiting list and address homelessness, by building enough homes to get 29,000 people off the social housing waiting list and house 20,000 homeless people
Scrap the royalty holiday for Adani, revoke Adani’s mining licence and access to ground water…….
The Greens’ campaign has been bolstered by an Essential Research poll of 430 people, which shows the party ahead in South Brisbane, currently held by Labor Deputy Premier Jackie Trad.
The poll has the Greens on 36 per cent of the first preference vote, 32 per cent to Labor, 24 per cent to the LNP and 8 per cent not sure.
However, the LNP will list the Greens last on its how-to-vote cards, which should give Ms Trad a boost in the two-party preferred count.
Anti-Adani protesters defy council, police in last-ditch action before election, SMH, Toby Crockford , 21 Nov 17 More than 200 anti-Adani activists have defied council and police by gathering in the heart of Brisbane for a last-ditch protest just days before the Queensland election.
Organisers hinted there could be mass arrests on Tuesday evening after Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Police Service refused to issue permits for the action, but despite a strong police presence, no arrests were made…….
Cr Sri also asked protesters to take pictures from the rally and post them onto social media in order to generate discussion about the Adani proposal in the days before voters head to the polls.
“No one wants the coal, the business model’s all wrong,” he sang.
“And if the trucks start to roll, you better bet we’re locking on.
“There are thousands of us, our supporters number millions, we’re gonna mobilise, a whole army of civilians.
Northcote by-election: Greens win inner-city seat, Thorpe to become first female Aboriginal MP, By Richard Willingham, Sunday 19 November 2017 www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-18/greens-win-northcote-by-election/9164644 The Greens’ Lidia Thorpe will become the first Aboriginal woman in Victoria’s Parliament,
defeating Labor’s Clare Burns on the back of a campaign that included a
pitch to voters that they could make history while not toppling a progressive government.
‘It is the first time Labor has lost a Victorian by-election since 1948.’
Carmichael coal mine magnate Gautam Adani: from school dropout to $12bn empire, The Age 18 Nov 17
Adani’s push to build a mega coal mine in Queensland has polarised opinions nationwide. It should come as no surprise: the billionaire behind the project has long been a focus of controversy in his native India.Tim Elliott
“………According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the 55-year-old has a net worth of $US9.9 billion ($12.9 billion), placing him among the 10 richest people in India. As chairman of Adani Group, which he founded three decades ago, he presides over an empire with interests in mining, ports, power plants, real estate, renewable energy, food, and even defence……
To Australians, however, he is best known for his proposed $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine, to be built in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin. Construction was scheduled to start in October, but has been delayed due to political and financing issues. Should the mine proceed, it will be one of the largest in the world – roughly five times the size of Sydney Harbour – and produce up to 60 million tonnes of coal per year for anywhere between 50 and 60 years, all of which will be exported, the bulk of it to India…….
Adani has also been willing to operate at the very limits of India’s notoriously murky business world. His companies have been implicated in multiple instances of alleged corruption, including tax evasion, bribery, money laundering and large-scale illegal exports. In 2007, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence began investigating companies in the Adani Group for evading taxes and laundering money while trading in diamonds and gold jewellery. (In 2015, following a complex and protracted case, the Supreme Court found partly in Adani’s favour, whilst conceding that the company had engaged in a “notorious misuse” of the government’s diamond export scheme.)
Companies in the Adani Group are being prosecuted in Delhi’s High Court for allegedly inflating the price of capital equipment imports, allowing the company to charge electricity consumers higher prices while diverting profits into tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Mauritius. (Adani denies any wrongdoing.)
“Adani should have been prosecuted for so many offences,” says Prashant Bhushan, a Delhi-based public interest lawyer who co-filed the High Court case. “There’s cheating the public and electricity consumers and shareholders; there are violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. There are probably corruption cases involving the banks.”
And yet investigations into Adani’s companies have a habit of being shelved indefinitely, being resolved in his favour or simply disappearing. “Mr Adani has a lot of influence in high places,” Bhushan tells me. “It is obvious, for instance, that he is very good friends with [the Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi.” …….
Saysthe energy consultant Tim Buckley, “Adani is getting exactly the same sort of treatment from Australian politicians to that which he is used to back in India. He has been offered a $1 billion subsidised loan from the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility [NAIF], and a $600 million royalty holiday and free water from Queensland taxpayers. And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve now learnt that the Queensland Government has compulsorily acquired prime agricultural land to make way for the Adani railway. It’s farcical.”…….. http://www.theage.com.au/good-weekend/carmichael-coal-mine-magnate-gautam-adani-from-school-dropout-to-12bn-empire-20171106-gzfobl.html
Solar industry launches big campaign in Queensland poll against LNP http://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-industry-launches-big-campaign-queensland-poll-lnp-59401/ By Giles Parkinson on 17 November 2017 The Australian Solar Council – the peak body for the country’s solar industry – has announced a major advertising campaign against the Liberal National Party coalition in the Queensland election campaign, saying the future of the industry is at stake.
The ASC says it is spending “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in the first stage of its campaign, which will include TV, designed to highlight the implications for the solar industry if the LNP win power.
“It is a huge step for the Australian Solar Council to do political advertising, but solar companies are concerned,” says John Grimes, the chief executive of the ASC.
Liberal National Party policies present a direct threat to profits in Queensland’s renewables industry.”
Grimes told Reneweconomy that campaign was launched because it was felt that the issue – essentially one of solar versus coal – had not got the prominence it deserved.
“The reality of what’s at stake is not well understood, we have got to shake people up,” Grimes said.
“The implications of a Queensland LNP government that abolishes the renewable target, abolishes the RET in Queensland and signs up to new coal fired power station is completely untenable. That’s why we are taking this action.”
The LNP has made clear it will remove all subsidies for renewable energy in the state, and focus instead on building a new coal fired power station in north Queensland – an idea that even other coal generation companies say is ridiculous.
Labor, on the other hand, has promised to reach “at least” 50 per cent renewable energy by 2020, and promised more funding for a first solar thermal plant with storage, more solar for schools, initiatives for renters and low income households, and a 400MW tender for solar and storage.
The result, however, is in the balance, with One Nation polling strongly enough to possibly win some seats, and provide the numbers to support the LNP in a minority government.
Grimes noted that there were more than 24 large scale solar projects under development, or committed, in Queensland, and a pipeline of at least double that.
“We right on the cusp of an energy transformation,” he said. “There is a whole lot of investment that will fall by the wayside if we get a change in government.
The ASC is also concerned about the LNP’s declared support for the proposed National Energy Guarantee, which critics say will end up supporting existing fossil fuel generators and effectively penalise and put a halt to renewable energy development. The National Energy Guarantee is really a guarantee for coal,” Grimes says. “It means delay, inaction and confusion for renewable energy. That’s untenable for Queensland’s solar industry.
“When the National Energy Guarantee was announced, the Australian Solar Council promised a pointed political campaign against it. We are making good on that promise through newspaper, radio and digital advertising in key marginal seats in Queensland.
“Thousands of regional jobs have been created by the solar boom, and billions of dollars are being invested in regional communities but the solar boom could turn to bust in the Sunshine State,” said Mr Grimes.