Selling Our Assets: The Climate Change Consequences

According to this article published in the Sunshine Coast Daily, the Premier has admitted that the sale of the coal infrastructure, and specifically the Abbott Point Coal Terminal will "guarantee" the expansion and growth of Queensland's coal industry. Plans to quadruple exports from this terminal will have disastrous climate change consequences.

In an attempt to revive Queensland's falling credit rating, Premier Bligh yesterday announced that $15 billion worth of public assets would be sold off to private interests. The mass privatisation of some of Queensland's most critical infrastructure - Forestry Plantations Queensland, Queensland Motorways, Port of Brisbane Corporation, Abbot Point Coal Terminal and Queensland Rail's coal and freight arms - is in direct contradiction to the Queensland Labor State Platform Document 2008, which reads: 

Labor rejects a program of privatisation of public services such as public hospitals and schools, public enterprises including subsidiary companies or utilities (in particular rail, ports, public hospitals, electricity and water) as an economic strategy...

Privatisation of public enterprises should not be used to solve revenue problems of governments.

Aside from the imminent job losses that privatisation will cause, the sale of the coal export facilities will ensure a massive increase in our coal exports. At a time when the rest of the world is looking for ways to reduce emissions, this decision of the Bligh Government will ensure that the purchasers of the infrastructure will be looking for ways to maximise returns on their investment.

This is most apparent in relation to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal.

Current plans for the expansion of the Abbot Point Terminal will double its current capacity from 25 million tonnes of coal per year to 50 million tonnes. But as Premier Bligh admits, the long term vision is to quadruple its export capacity:   

Abbot Point's long term plan... to export between 80 and 100 million tonnes a year can only be achieved with significant new investment of funds.

If that happens we will see... Abbot Point and that supply chain system grow to be one of the most effective, efficient and strongest coal export chains in Australia and arguably the world.

It will grow local jobs. More importantly, it will grow prosperity for the whole region and indeed the whole country.

What the Premier fails to mention is that the quadrupling of our export capacity will also quadruple the contribution that Queensland makes to climate change.

As to the potential purchaser of the coal infrastructure, the Sydney Morning Herald identifies the convenience of the decision in light of Clive Palmers' China First proposal: 

... apart from the usual suspects - infrastructure funds, private equity and Xstrata - the Queensland entrepreneur Clive Palmer and his new mates at China Metallurgical Construction would represent a logical buyer. Palmer said last week their China First joint venture planned to export more than 30 million tonnes a year through a new two-berth export terminal at Abbot Point by 2013 if its $7 billion Queensland coal project proceeded as planned.

The China First project, were it to go ahead, would cause an enormous increase in greenhouse gas emissions. To place this is context, the emissions from the project are the equivalent to adding another 33 million cars to our roads! 

No doubt, the elimination of the fuel subsidy in the upcoming budget will cause Queenslanders to rethink their transportation choices, and may lead to reduced fossil fuel consumption.

But this pales in comparison to the impact of the expansion of the coal industry - facilitated by the Bligh government's asset fire sale.

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