No Royalties on Felton Mine

The Felton Valley, located some  thirty kilometres southwest of Toowoomba, is under threat from a proposal by Ambre Energy to build a 12.8 million tonne per year open-cut coal mine, a petrochemical plant to convert the coal into liquid fuel, and a power station. Ambre Energy have enjoyed the support of the Queensland Government to date - however due to a recent legal investigation, that may be about to change.

Legal advice obtained by the local opposition group Friends of Felton indicates that royalties payable on any coal mined at Felton would not be payable to the Queensland Government.

Under Section 8(2)(b) of the Queensland Mineral Resources Act 1989: 

Coal on or below the surface of the land is the property of the Crown except where that land was alienated in fee simple by the Crown before 1 March 1910……”

Farms at Felton were granted freehold title long before 1910. This means that the royalties payable on the coal will likely go to landholders, and not to the taxpayers of Queensland.

As the spokesperson for Friends of Felton Rob McCreath said:  

The so-called Felton Clean Coal Project would have disastrous environmental impacts, destroy some of this country’s best farmland, and inflict huge social impacts on a large rural population. Our legal advice shows that there is no royalty bonanza in this for the Government.

The Ambre Energy proposal clearly fails the ‘Public Interest’ test, and would in fact channel huge wealth into the hands of a few shareholders without meeting the costs it would inflict on the public at large through permanent and widespread damage to the natural environment. 

An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald posed the question to Queensland Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson: if the approval of the open-cut coal mine would provide no financial benefit to Queensland taxpayers, how can it possibly meet the public interest test required for its approval? 

His response?

All new mines must first meet the Queensland government's statutory requirements, particularly in relation to environmental standards, before any approval is granted. The public interest test will balance a range of considerations including environmental, economical and social impacts across the community. Given the assessment process is still ongoing, it is far too early to make that decision."

But, as Friends of Felton have maintained, without any economic benefit to Queensland, and given the mine would destroy some of the finest agricultural land in Australia, have a host of negative social and environmental impacts, and contribute substantially to climate change, how could it possibly be in the best interest of Queensland for this development to go ahead?