Bob Katter raises funding for Galilee basin railway in talks with Turnbull

Bob Katter has canvassed federal funding for the Galilee basin railway in talks with Malcolm Turnbull but says it would be “totally unacceptable” for the Indian coalminer Adani to own it. Katter said he raised the issue as a factor of his support for a possible minority Coalition government with Turnbull in Brisbane on Thursday but “we’ve done no deals”. He said the rail line to open up Australia’s largest thermal coal reserve needed to be built “as soon as it can” but that it “should be owned by Australians”. “I don’t want a foreign corporation to control the Galilee,” Katter said, adding his political party were “socialists” on the issue. “What sort of a country are we? We give half of the coal resources of Australia under the control of a foreign corporation? That is against everything that I believe in.” Adani currently proposes to build the rail line as the first miner to open up one of the world’s largest thermal coal reserves through its Carmichael mine. The company was once in talks with the former Newman state government over funding. There has since been speculation the commonwealth could invest in the project through its Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. Katter said the railway would cost $2bn and open up the Galilee for other miners like the Australian company Resolve Coal, as well as Adani. He claimed payroll tax and coal royalties – which go to state coffers – would deliver a profit on the rail investment after three years. Katter did not specify whether the railway should be owned by the Queensland government or the commonwealth, or how federal funding of a state asset would work. “As far as we’re concerned, there’s no way in the world a foreign corporation will own that railway line. That is totally unacceptable to us, he said. The contentious Carmichael project has been delayed amid a thermal coal market slump and a slew of legal challenges from conservationists and traditional owners. Tim Buckley, from the Institute for the Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said Katter’s proposal “puts the Adani project back in contention” as the company would likely agree to the government building the rail line. But Adani still faced the “enormous obstacle” of reaching financial close on $7bn to build the mine and a new terminal at Abbott Point coal port in a slumping coal market. The Indian government is actively discouraging coal imports by electricity generators. Buckley said a restructure of Adani’s Indian parent, Adani Enterprises, had left it needing to find $10bn in funding for its mine, rail and port, with just US$1.4bn in equity capitalisation and existing net debt of US$2.6bn. He said Katter was wrong about the cost of the railway, saying the north link to include Resolve Coal would actually cost $3bn. Katter, asked whether the government risked throwing good money after bad at a stranded asset by building the railway, said Adani had “already put out a billion dollars” into the Carmichael project. “Once you put out a billion dollars, you can’t back out. If that rail line’s built, they’ll have to go forward, they’ll have no alternative,” he said. Katter said there were “28 major people who have got the wherewithal to start mining [the Galilee] tomorrow – I’m not saying they will but they could if they wanted to”. He was “not interested in Adani, but I am interested in them not owning that rail line”, Katter said. “That belongs to the people of Queensland and it will stop growth on the Galilee if that’s privately owned. “It’s got to be a multiuser facility … and if Adani builds it, it’s not a multiuser facility, he has control of half of Australia’s coal resources. That’s why [Katter’s Australia party], why we fight, we don’t want that to happen.”