Private dinners, lavish parties and shoulder rubbing. How coal giant Adani charmed Australia's political elite

Why is it that for so long and under such extreme pressure, Australian political leaders of both dominant stripes have stood by one of the most controversial coal projects in the country’s history? The project in question is the Carmichael coal mine – a $16 billion (or so) plan for Queensland’s Galilee Basin being endlessly proposed by Indian company Adani. The man behind the project is Gautam Adani – the charming Indian billionaire and reportedly “constant companion” of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If it went ahead (it’s an increasingly big if), Carmichael would become Australia’s biggest ever coal mine exporting 60 million tonnes of the climate warming fossil fuel for decades to India, via a dedicated rail line and expanded port. If the world does agree a deal to limit global warming to below two degrees, then one expert has said that by mid-century, the emissions from the mine and the burning of the coal could equal four per cent of world emissions. The approval for the mine hit a snag last week, when a Federal court case brought by a local conservation group found that Environment Minister Greg Hunt hadn’t reviewed the proper paperwork in relation to two endangered species (a skink and a snake). This has prompted the Abbott Government to push for a change in national environmental laws that would remove the rights of environment groups to challenge projects unless they could show they were directly impacted. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said campaigners were using the courts to “sabotage” mining projects. Attorney-General George Brandis said “vigilante environmental groups” were trying to game the system. Other people just thought that it was a case of the rule of law doing its job, but they’re probably vigilantes too. We know that Abbott loves coal and thinks that it is “good for humanity”. Is that why he is prepared to back a financially risky project? Is it the “10,000” jobs that government ministers say will come from the project (remembering that Adani’s own consultant has said that those numbers were vastly overblown and that Carmichael would result in less less than 1500 jobs). Could it be the prospect of cash from coal royalties? Maybe. Does the substantial media coverage from the mine just give the Abbott Government another opportunity to tell the public that all environmentalists are economic saboteurs who want to take away people’s jobs and come in the dead of night to steal your babies? Possibly. But could there be another causal factor that has contributed to the way Australian politicians have forcefully backed Adani for so many years? Could that other factor be the close relationships that the company has managed to forge at the highest levels with Australia’s political leaders? Whenever an Australian leader sets foot in India, it seems that a meeting with Gautam Adani is never more than a figurative (and sometimes literal) flight in a private jet away. There’s evidence of this going back at least as far as October 2010 and its there in the records of trade missions tabled before parliaments. Let’s peruse together. In October 2010, Queensland’s then Premier Anna Bligh travelled to India on a trade mission to promote the state’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games and “strengthen Queensland’s position as an ally and destination for future trade and investment in the eyes of the Indian market and nation leaders”. A report tabled to the Queensland Parliament shows that Bligh’s first official meeting with Indian figures was with Adani, where the company’s owner Gautam Adani and his international development executive Harsh Mishra got to quiz the Premier about policies relating to rail lines, underground coal gasification and support for mining in the Galilee Basin. Bligh also “agreed to attend the opening” of Adani’s offices in Brisbane later that month and extended an invitation for Adani to meet with its co-ordinator general when they were next in Brisbane. After Campbell Newman won power for the Liberal National Party in Queensland, he led a trade mission to India too. While there, Newman joined former Labor Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and a 76-strong business delegation for a tour of an Adani port and a power plant, reportedly getting there on a private jet. The report on the trade mission, tabled to Parliament, shows that Mr Adani then hosted a lavish reception at his home for the entire delegation. Judging by one freelance photographer’s images, the event was quite an affair with much handshaking all-round. The event was part of “OzFest” – Australia’s “largest cultural festival” for which Adani was a “platinum sponsor” In 2013, the Queensland Governent was again in India for a trade mission led by then Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney and, again, the Adani company was on hand. Seeney’s delegation travelled with Adani executive Harsh Mishra to visit an Adani-owned port and power station before Seeney had a private lunch with the company. Later that same day, Seeney met with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (now the Indian Prime Minister) and… Gautum Adani. Mr Adani then hosted a private dinner with Seeney “which included Adani Group senior executives and members of Mr Adani’s family”. But it’s not only Queensland politicians who have sought out Adani company bosses while on missions to India. Former New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell met with Gautam Adani during a trade visit to India in December 2013. Current NSW Premier Mike Baird also went on a trade mission to India earlier this year. You can probably guess by now the name of one Indian billionaire he met with. Gautam Adani is also a co-chair of the Australia-India CEO Forum – an initiative of the Australian High Commission. Trade minister Andrew Robb attended the last meeting in New Delhi. I don’t know if they had dinner (but if I was a betting man….) Let me be clear. Under current laws, politicians can meet with whomever they want and coalmining billionaires are free to wine and dine them to their heart’s content (as long as all gifts are properly disclosed). But rides in private jets? Dinners with family? Lavish parties at private residences? That’s a lot of very expensive shoulder rubbing. So far at least, it appears to be paying off.