Premier invites regional Mayors for Adani meetings in India

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has invited five mayors from regional Queensland to join her meetings with the leadership of Adani, the proponents of the $21 billion Carmichael Coal project, in India next month (March).

The Premier said the visit to India would be part of her overseas trade mission to include Singapore for trade meetings and London for 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games activities.

“The Carmichael Coal mine-rail-port project offered the potential for thousands of new jobs across regional Queensland,” she said.

“I met with Mr Adani in Townsville late last year and secured commitments on regional employment and the use of local labour rather than workers on 457 visas.”

“The meeting next month will be critical ahead of Adani making its final investment decision in April.”

The Mayors invited are Jenny Hill (Townsville), Andrew Willcox (Whitsunday), Greg Williamson (Mackay), Anne Baker (Isaac) and Margaret Strelow (Rockhampton).

Adani has already confirmed to the Premier that the:

• regional headquarters will be based in Townsville;
• remote operations centre will be in Townsville;
• rail and port operations headquarters will be in Bowen;
• mining services based in Mackay;
• rail maintenance and provisioning yard in the Mackay-Bowen region;
• project sourcing centres in Townsville, Charters Towers, Rockhampton, Emerald, Clermont and Moranbah; and
• the shortlist for a Fly in Fly Out hub is Townsville and Rockhampton, with a decision due this year coinciding with the start of early works.

“My Government has worked with Adani to ensure the project went through a rigorous and comprehensive assessment process for the mine, rail and port development,” the Premier said.

“We promised the people of Queensland, at the last election, that we would protect the Great Barrier Reef and Caley Valley Wetlands from disposal of dredged spoil from the Abbot Point port expansion.”

“We also promised the Queensland Government, on behalf of taxpayers, would not fund project infrastructure.”

“We have delivered our commitments and now we look forward to the thousands of new jobs – direct and indirect – to be delivered from the Carmichael Coal project.”

Adani is also proposing to establish a $200 million large-scale solar project near Moranbah. 

The Premier said she would use the visit to India to assess stronger trade and investment presence for Queensland Government in India.  Trade and Investment Queensland has a office at Bangalore headed by Commissioner Sandra Diethelm, who was appointed to that role in October last year. India is now the 4^th largest customer for Queensland exports with $6.4 billion in sales in 2016, an increase of almost $1 billion or about 18% over the 2015 result.  Queensland's trade with India was $4.7 billion in the 2014 calendar year.

Media contact: Kirby Anderson (Premier's office) 0417 263 791