Eve Sinton
Australia is a nation on the move: 10,000 people are trudging towards the zombie jobs promised them in Queensland by Indian company Adani at its proposed Carmichael mine.
That job figure has our leaders falling over themselves to expedite approvals and throw one billion taxpayer dollars at Adani.
On December 6 Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, in the lead-up to a media gig in Townsville with boss Gautam Adani, was so excited she multiplied the promised jobs to ‘tens of thousands’ on ABC News 24.
There is a big, farting elephant in Ms Palaszczuk’s office.
The 10,000 jobs are zombie jobs. They lurk year after year in Adani-generated publicity despite the true figure being 1,464. That’s right, under 1,500 jobs according to Adani’s own economic consultant, Jerome Fahrer of ACIL Allen Consulting, testifying in the Land Court of Queensland in January 2015.
The truth does not deter Adani, its acolytes and mainstream media from continuous repetition of the zombie figure 10,000.
‘In dispute’
In the lead-up to the Tuesday Townsville announcement, a preview by the ABC’s Leonie Mellor reported 10,000 jobs.
Having followed the issue for years, I was alarmed to see the fake figure emerge and emailed Ms Mellor, saying the true figure is contained in the expert witness testimony of The Australia Institute, which can be viewed here.
I don’t know if she read my email, but Mellor went to air that night saying ‘the exact number of jobs is in dispute, but ranges between 1,500 and 4,000’.
Next day I almost choked as the 10,000 jobs were thrown up continuously by the ABC as well as the Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, Murdoch mouthpieces like the Courier Mail and pretty much the entire mainstream media.
Quality of advice
The zombie jobs were heavily promoted by Queensland resources minister Anthony Lynham, LNP opposition leader Tim Nicholls, federal resources minister Matt Canavan, former federal mining minister and now Queensland Resources Council chief Ian Macfarlane, Townsville mayor Jenny Hill along with local port and business organisations, PM Malcolm Turnbull, deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, and of course, Adani Australia head Jeyakumar Janakaraj.
I was left wondering at the quality of advice politicians receive.
Surely someone has informed Ms Palaszczuk of the Land Court case and the actual figure of 1,464? Don’t Turnbull, Joyce and co have a team of public servants delivering frank and fearless advice?
The zombie jobs look even more shonky alongside the $1 billion concessional loan being offered to subsidise Adani’s proposed railway line from the mine to Abbot Point.
Independent Australia’s mining correspondent Lachlan Barker told me the loan translates out as $683,060 per job. ‘Outrageous,’ he said. ‘If Adani and Palaszczuk are so concerned about jobs, they could employ 1,464 people to work on farms or on reef conservation at the minimum wage in Queensland for a fraction of that cost.’
Solar jobs
Meanwhile, freelance journalist Michael West points out: ‘If that same $1 billion of taxpayers’ subsidy was to finance a solar project it would create 9,000 construction jobs.’
Stack the zombie jobs up against real jobs associated with the nearby Great Barrier Reef, estimated at around 70,000. Jobs already threatened by this year’s death of a third of the reef owing to global warming.
Emissions from what will be the world’s largest coal mine will markedly accelerate climate change. Dredging for the Abbot Point port and heavy shipping through the reef will create further pollution.
As the elephant in Palaszczuk’s office farts again and turns white, keep in mind Adani’s railway line is of incompatible gauge with Queensland’s rail network, making it useless for anything other than hauling coal wagons.
Adani has many problems between its coal dreaming and its hole in the ground.
Banks are steering clear of funding the $22b project, which looks commercially unviable owing to structural decline in world coal prices.
India, destination of the coal and most of the profits, has large coal reserves of its own. India’s PM wants coal imports phased out, and a future focus on renewables.
The Carmichael mine faces further legal challenges, including one from traditional owners determined to go to the High Court.
Farmers object to the government’s gratuitous grant of unlimited free water to the miners, likely to deplete the Great Artesian Basin with colossal water extraction.
Blockades
Community groups such as Coast and Country and Lock the Gate have pledged to battle Adani on every front, including blockades on the ground if necessary.
What do our politicians, pushing so hard for Adani and Carmichael, expect to get for their efforts? The royalties and taxes are vastly over-stated. There may be more junkets to India, fat political donations and cushy boardroom positions.
All on the back of the taxpayer dollar, environmental havoc and 10,000 zombie jobs.
Eve Sinton is a retired journalist and a Knitting Nanna Against Gas who wants to save the land, air and water for her four grandchildren and all the kiddies of the world.
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