North Queensland Conservation Council responds to a story on ABC online that the Queensland Government is offering a royalty holiday to Adani that could cost the state $320 million in lost revenue.

Maree Dibella, Coordinator of North Queensland Conservation Council said:

“This is an outrageous move by the Queensland Government. All Australian’s own the resources in the ground and mining companies need to pay for it. Now Adani is getting our resources for free, on top of free water, and possibly free money too (via NAIF).”

“At a time when we need to be drastically reducing climate pollution, opening up a new mega coal mine is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We need strong climate change action and that means no new coal.”

“This is a disgraceful decision by the Queensland Government to give preferential treatment to a dodgy company that already avoids paying tax, uses overseas tax havens, overstates job prospects for regional Queenslanders and will now have a break from paying for the coal.”