The federal Government could still hand out $1 billion of taxpayer money to seed the Carmichael coal project – the mega-mine that will fuel dangerous global warming and send thousands of huge coal ships ploughing through the Great Barrier Reef.

The decision to lend the money rests with the board members of a government body – the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF). NAIF was created by the Prime Minister in 2016 and has been endowed with $5 billion of taxpayer money to fund projects in Northern Australia. Rather than spending billions of dollars on much need schools and hospitals for Northern Australia, the NAIF board are considering funding projects that will fuel catastrophic climate change and wreck the Great Barrier Reef.

The potential loan and the loan body have been slammed by two more groups in past weeks.  An analysis by economic consulting firm ACIL Allen for the Australian Conservation Foundation found the loan would be a high risk for taxpayers due to global uncertainty around the future of coal. “Handing out $1 billion of public money to Adani would be throwing good money after bad, all in the name of cooking the planet,” according to foundation economist Matt Rose.  In addition, a group of prominent economists, including Geoff Weir, director of Financial Sector Services who formerly worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia, Treasury and the OECD; Robert Henderson, former chief economist (markets) at NAB; Shelley Cooper, former branch manager at the Clean Energy Regulator; and Sue Holmes, former assistant commissioner at the Productivity Commission, has found NAIF to be ‘sorely wanting’ on transparency, accountability and its track report for public disclosure.  They have suggested that the Productivity Commission would be a much better organisation to assess a potential loan and its outcomes.  Read more here.

Visit the #Stop Adani site to find out more about how you can contribute to halting this destructive mine.