Federal Environment Minister should resign, approval rescinded

Thursday, April 18, 2019: The ABC released documents showing the approval of the Adani groundwater plan for their controversial coal mine did not meet the requirements of the scientific bodies entrusted with assessing the project’s impacts.

Last week, two days before calling the federal election, the Minister for the Environment, Melissa Price, approved the groundwater management plan provided by Adani. As she stated, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia “have confirmed the revised plans meet strict scientific requirements”. This is clearly not true.

“We were all concerned the approval was political. Coalition members were threatening the Minister if she did not provide the approval before the election. The Prime Minister called the election at a time that meant the CSIRO would not be put in front of Senate Estimates hearings to confirm (or deny) the assertions of the Minister. The leaking of this information demonstrates that the Minister misled the public and the scientific bodies undertaking the assessment are not happy,” stated Glen Klatovsky, CEO of 350 Australia.

In a convoluted mess, the Minister’s Department has allowed for the approval without Adani committing to change their methodology to assessing the impacts of the proposed mine on groundwater or limiting the scale of the mine.

“The Minister needs to be held to account for this. Public trust has been demolished by a litany of attempts by this government to help Adani build its mine, and it has been noted that Adani has contributed more than $60,000 to the LNP since the last election. She should resign and the approval immediately rescinded,” concluded Mr Klatovsky.

For interviews:

Glen Klatovsky, CEO, 350 Australia on 0410 482243

Authorised by Glen Klatovsky, CEO, 350 Australia, Sydney. Correspondence in regard to any authorised material can be sent to: glen@350.org.au.