In stunning breaking news, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced that her Queensland government will refuse to approve a billion dollar loan from public money to the Indian Adani coal mining company trying to build Australia’s and one of the world’s biggest coalmines. For the federal loan to go ahead, it has to go via the Queensland government. Now that Queensland Labor have refused to act as go-between on this dirty deal, right-of-centre Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's craven billion-dollar payoff to Adani has been left stranded.
It's a massive body blow to Adani, who are now desperately trying to extort
handouts from governments as the financial sector abandons them.
This is a spectacular turnaround
from the Queensland government, and they did it because of protests.
Protesters made 54,589 phone calls into 11 electorates. They convinced 1,532
members of the public to contact their Members of Parliament. Protesters went
to 520 calling sessions. 160 local #StopAdani groups took 320 actions across Australia
in the past three months. That's one every six hours.
Today's Guardian called the Stop Adani movement: "the biggest
environmental campaign in Australia since the 1980s."
But things are still far from over. Protesters are sure that Senator Canavan, the minister for resources and northern
Australia, and his
cronies will desperately try to find a way to dish out a billion dollars to
Adani. To find every single dirty trick, handout or leg-up they can to give to
their best friends. They will continue to throw a tantrum until they get their
way.