One Nation has met twice in recent months with representatives from the Adani company in an effort to satisfy concerns about the management of groundwater at the Carmichael coalmine and to ascertain any plans the company might have to fly in mine workers from India.
A spokesman for the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday the company had provided credible assurances about water management and had signalled the project would generate local employment in central Queensland, not opportunities for fly-in fly-out foreign workers.
Asked whether One Nation was concerned about the project from a foreign investment standpoint, given the party’s policy platform, Hanson’s spokesman said the party was concerned about foreign ownership, not foreign investment.
He said projects such as the Adani development were positive because they would provide cheap electricity in India, which would lift people out of poverty.
While sending positive signals about the project, One Nation is yet to take a position on whether the Turnbull government should provide $1bn in taxpayer support to Adani via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
Bob Katter said on Tuesday the government should not give a foreign corporation “control of the coalfields” through the proposed rail line.
“Whilst we remain strong supporters of Mr Adani, for both governments to give the control of the coalfields to one corporation through that rail line is beyond belief,” Katter said.
Katter suggested the line should be financed through government investment and open to multiple users, not financed by a loan.
The government has confirmed this week it is considering lending $1bn towards a 388km railway line associated with the Carmichael mine. On Monday, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, met the Adani Group chairman, Gautam Adani, in Melbourne to discuss the project.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said on Tuesday the opposition would welcome job creation if the project went ahead but he signalled Labor wasn’t interested in providing any taxpayer subsidies.
Shorten said the project should proceed or fail on its own commercial merits.
The proposed railway line, belonging to the group’s Carmichael rail project, would link the Galilee Basin in Queensland to a new terminal at Abbot Point, where thermal coal would be shipped to India.
With unemployment a huge issue in regional Queensland, and with the Coalition under political pressure from rivals like One Nation, the local LNP member, George Christensen, has backed the $1bn loan.
