On the 9 November 2021, Queensland Deputy Premier MP Miles notified intent to ‘Call In’ Waratah Coal Pty Ltd’s (owned by billionaire Clive Palmer) dirty new coal power station proposal. A ‘Call In’ will see the Queensland Government relieve the small outback council – Barcaldine Regional Council – of the mammoth task of assessing and approving the power station, and set the stage to end the development.
Waratah Coal quietly started work with the Queensland Government in May 2019 to build the new 1400 mega watt coal fired power station, located in the Galilee Basin, north east of Alpha in Central Queensland.
According to the public statement from the Deputy Premier part of the reason for considering the Call In - “Currently, this application isn’t subject to public consultation. I want to make sure the community get their say on a project of this scale”.
But the ‘Call In’ is not done, make a submission and help end this climate wreaking development!
Based on the Minister’s reasons, we know a few things: Waratah Coal will not be required to provide more information and the decision will be based on the information currently submitted. This is a good thing, and puts the project on the path to being refused. Why?.. normally a big project would be assessed on its potential impacts to the environment, but Waratah Coal’s back-door approach tried to avoid the impacts being assessed. So Waratah Coal worked for almost two years on application documentations that are deficient for the new process. That means, the Queensland Government can pull out the microscope and identify all the reasons why the development should be refused.
You can read the Reasons from Minister Miles at the link here.
The Minister’s ‘Call In’ and decision making discretion is broad, and we know from the Reasons there are concerns the develop will impact the economic interests of the State, and environmental interests of the State, including the ability of Queensland “achieving the targets of 50% renewable energy by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050 is of importance to the state”.
Now is the time to make a submission. The 21 day period ends on the 1 December 2021. Stay tuned to the website and social media; in the coming days a guide will be posted to help with your submission.
Say NO to this power station, and YES to the Queensland government to ‘Call In’ this climate wrecking development.
Representations must be made by 5.00 pm on 1 December 2021 to:
Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and
Planning and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics Infrastructure
c/- Director, Development Assessment Services
Development Assessment Division
Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning
Email: [email protected]
Post: PO Box 15009
CITY EAST QLD 4002
You can read the Reasons from Minister Miles at the link here.
You can read about the project and its Development Application on the Barcaldine Regional Council site here.