Coal wars: A fact check for the Turnbull government

Since Malcom Turnbull replaced Tony “coal is good for humanity” Abbott, the Adani Carmichael Mine, the Galilee Basin and environmental “Lawfare” had been out of the news. But an increase in the coal price and Turnbull’s apparent change of view means the Coal Wars are BACK. It’s time to re-arm yourselves the facts.

CLAIM: The Adani mine will create 10,000 jobs.

FACTS:

Adani’s own economist contradicted this under oath in the Queensland Land Court, saying:

“Over the life of the Project it is projected that on average around 1,464 employee years of full time equivalent direct and indirect jobs will be created”. 

((Jerome Fahrer (2015) Carmichael Coal And Rail Project: Economic Assessment, Expert Report By Jerome Fahrer, Report To Land Court Of Queensland, Acil Allen Consulting Pty Ltd, Page 15 available from http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1513_adanijobs.pdf
))

•   Adani’s economist, Jerome Fahrer from ACIL Allen, found that Adani’s mine and rail operations would employ around 1,800 people directly and create around 1,000 downstream jobs in “other services”.
•   But, in building and operating such a big mine, ACIL found that the project would reduce employment in agriculture, manufacturing and other mining projects by around 1,400 jobs.
•   All this is shown in ACIL’s graph below, with increased jobs at the Carmichael mine in yellow, increases in services in dark purple and reductions in manufacturing, agriculture and other mining below the axis:

The black line represents the balance between jobs created and jobs destroyed by Adani’s mine. The average value of it is 1,464 jobs.

•   Most of the jobs created would be Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) mining jobs, while the jobs destroyed are mainly manufacturing jobs in Queensland’s towns and cities.
•   Queensland has a workforce of around 2 million people. Coal mining employs around 20,000 Queenslanders, or about 1% of the workforce. Coal is not a major employer in Queensland.

Claim: The Adani project and Galilee Basin are vital for Queensland’s budget.

FACTS:

•   Coal royalties account for just 4% of Queensland government revenue. This is about the same percentage as the Queensland government receives from car registration. 96% of Queensland’s services are paid for by other parts of the economy. ((http://www.tai.org.au/content/mouse-roars-coal-queensland-economy))
•   Queensland taxpayers paid for $8 billion worth of coal infrastructure between 2009–2014.Queensland Treasury noted “Governments face budget constraints and spending on mining related infrastructure means less infrastructure spending in other areas, including social infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.” ((https://cgc.gov.au/index.php?option=com_attachments&task=download&id=1727))

• The Galilee Basin requires heavy subsidies to begin production. Adani was offered $450m from the Newman government to help fund a rail project. ((https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/03/why-was-newman-was-handing-out- billions-to-an-indian-coal-mining-company-that-didnt-need-it)) Royalty “holidays” or “ramp ups” (aka free coal) have been, and may still be, Queensland government policy. ((Queensland Government (2013) Galilee Basin Development Strategy November 2013, no longer posted on web, copy available on request.))