Skip to main content

Ironclad assurance? Adani not to employ Indians, other foreigners in $16.5 billion Australian coal mining project

By Our Representative
No Indians would be allowed employment in the Adani Group’s controversial $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mining project in Queensland province. Melbourne-based South Asia Times (SAT) has quoted group chairman Gautam Adani as having assured the Australian authorities that he would not bring any foreign workers for his project.
SAT in a report from Melbourne says, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszuk told newspersons that she had received an “ironclad” guarantee from Gautam Adani during her meeting with him that there will be “no foreign workers brought under the 457 visas for the $ 16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine project.”
Pointing out that “there is no written agreement on it”, SAT says, “The Queensland Premier announced this after a meeting with the Adani Group boss in Townsville.”
Gautam Adani, considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier had a meeting the Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull at a private meeting in Melbourne and briefed him project details.
Meanwhile, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports that Queensland opposition leader Tim Nicholls said, written assurances about the decision not to bring any foreign workers for the project “would be preferable.”
“The Premier has said she takes Adani at this word and that’s fine, but I would have thought it would have been better to assure Queenslanders that we had some written commitments that jobs from this project will go to Queenslanders,” Nicholls has been quoted as saying.
In a related development, the Adani Group has announced that five regional towns will provide vital support services for the projects. In a media release, the Chief Executive of Adani Australian, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, said, Emerald, Clermont, Moranbah, Collinsville and Charters Towers would be “the source of support services, including workers for its projects.”
“We are particularly focusing on the construction of our planned near-400km rail line to be constructed between the Carmichael mine and our bulk port facility at Abbott Point near Bowen,” Janakaraj said.
“So we need people and services in the region to build that rail link, as well as companies to provide resources.”
“The provision of goods, services and labour from the regional towns would be supplemented by Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville”, Janakarajan said, adding, “Townsville would be the site of the regional headquarters for the Carmichael coal mine project.”
Janakaraj also said that Townsville would also be home base for the company’s project management office, and provide port services for incoming materials. The original plan of the company was to have the project offices in Brisbane, one of the biggest cities of Australia.
Gautam Adani’s assurances to the country’s authorities came following the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)-sponsored rally in Melbourne (click HERE) against the coal mining project. ACF called the decision to allow the project to go ahead a “dirty deal”.
It said, “This coal mine would be a global climate catastrophe. It is dangerous to our planet and the people and places we love. Australians don’t want this mine, we want our reef and a clean, safe future.”
Hitting out at Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, the environmental group said, he has “a clear choice – honour an iron clad election promise or do a dirty deal with Adani to use Australian taxpayers’ money to fund a coal-carting railway line from the Galilee Basin to the Great Barrier Reef coast.”
Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council, which has opposed the project for long, said, it would file a fresh court action against the proposed project, regretting the Adani Group chairman did not meet them.

Comments

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.

Victim of 'hazardous' jobs, Delhi sanitary workers get two thirds of minimum wages

By Sanjeev Kumar*  Recently, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop for sewer workers and waste pickers from all across Delhi NCR. The workshop focused on bringing sanitation workers from different parts of Delhi to train them for organization building and to discuss their issues of minimum wage, contractual labour, regular jobs and social security.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.