MEDIA RELEASE  
4 May 2017

Cruel politics as Whyalla steelworkers used to justify taxpayer subsidy for Adani coalmine

Using the Whyalla steelworks struggle to justify a $1 billion taxpayer subsidy to the Adani Carmichael coal mine railway line is cruel politics, says SA’s peak environment body.

“Australians don’t want a new mega-polluting coal mine,” said Conservation SA CEO Craig Wilkins.

“They especially don’t want taxpayers to subsidise one of the world’s biggest resource companies to the tune of a $1 billion loan to help pay for it.

“Knowing the justification for subsidising this project is not washing with Australian taxpayers, the project’s spruikers are now saying the Adani project will be a lifeline to the struggling Whyalla steelworks.

“It is cruel wedge politics for the fate of Whyalla steelworkers to be used in this way.

“It’s also wrong: a potential one-off order of 56,000 tonnes of steel over two years for a plant that produces 1.2 million tonnes per year is hardly a lifeline. That’s less than 1%.

“Minister Canavan is saying this order will ‘help sustain around 10,000 SA jobs’. Yet, according to Adani, the complete mine and railway project will only deliver 1,400 direct and indirect jobs in total.

“It’s a real shame that the people of Whyalla are being cynically caught up in the wider political furore over the Adani coalmine,” he said. 

Release Ends
Further comment: Craig Wilkins 0417 879 439