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The approval of #Adani’s groundwater plans is a disgrace and shows that the whole system is rigged and broken. This is not about any specific allegation of corruption, but the rules of the whole system being unfit for purpose. Here’s a thread on a few ways the system is rigged:
QC @StephenKeim1 has said that: “the default position of mining law in Queensland is that mining should proceed because exploiting the earth is ordained.” The existing system fails to adequately consider the climate damage impacts of a proposed project.
Notoriously there is legal approval that asks directly “given that we are in a state of climate emergency, should this project proceed?” Logically, it is impossible to justify the Adani mine in the face of climate emergency.
The native title system in Australia gives inadequate rights to traditional owners. At no time have the Wangan and Jagalingou peoples given their free, prior and informed consent to Adani.
According to Adrian Burragubba “every time we have said no, Adani has worked to override our decision and pursue its outcomes through the national native title regime. And the government has backed them.”
Queensland’s Labor government created a last-minute exemption in new laws around public consultation on water rights, with the result that there was no public consultation on or right of objection to the grant of a water licence for the Carmichael mine.
In April 2017 a sixty-year water licence was granted to Adani with no volumetric cap, meaning that the company can essentially take unlimited groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin for the life of the mine.
Our politicians are meant to represent their electorates and the wider polity. Instead, too often what we see is a preference for the interests of coal companies ahead of everyone else; like a bunch of grown-up fanboys, they psychologically identify with the coal industry.
A report by @TIAustralia found checks and balances failed to deliver transparency & accountability while poor regulation of political donations, lobbyists and the movement of staff between government and industry had undue influence on the approvals process.
Australia provides the coal industry with massive handouts. Earlier this year, the IMF estimated that the total annual fossil fuels subsidies in our country were put at $29 billion - taxpayer money literally being handed to big corporations to destroy our climate.
.@1RossGittins has said “our politicians...are so desperate to create the temporary appearance of progress and jobs that mining projects bring... to say thanks for the generous political donations the miners make – that they often use the offer of hefty subsidies to attract them”
In effect, the whole system is designed to give Adani the permissions it needs to make a new and unique contribution to destroying civilisation. We don’t just need to #StopAdani but to change the whole system for the good of Australia and the world.
