Five regional Queensland mayors have been invited to join State Government meetings in India next month with Carmichael coal project proponents Adani.
The mayors invited are Jenny Hill (Townsville), Andrew Willcox (Whitsunday), Greg Williamson (Mackay), Anne Baker (Isaac) and Margaret Strelow (Rockhampton).
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the visit to India would be part of her overseas trade mission to include Singapore and London.
“I met with Mr Adani in Townsville late last year and secured commitments on regional employment and the use of local labour rather than workers on 457 visas,” she said.
“The meeting next month will be critical ahead of Adani making its final investment decision in April.”
Ms Palaszczuk said Adani had already confirmed that the:
- regional headquarters for the $21 billion Carmichael coal project will be based in Townsville;
- remote operations centre will be in Townsville;
- rail and port operations headquarters will be in Bowen;
- mining services based in Mackay;
- rail maintenance and provisioning yard in the Mackay-Bowen region;
- project sourcing centres in Townsville, Charters Towers, Rockhampton, Emerald, Clermont and Moranbah; and
- the shortlist for a FIFO hub is Townsville and Rockhampton, with a decision due this year coinciding with the start of early works.
Adani is also proposing to establish a $200 million large-scale solar project near Moranbah.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would use the visit to India to assess stronger trade and investment presence for Queensland Government in India. Trade and Investment Queensland has a office at Bangalore headed by Commissioner Sandra Diethelm, who was appointed to that role in October last year. India is now the fourth largest customer for Queensland exports with $6.4 billion in sales in 2016, an increase of almost $1 billion or about 18% over the 2015 result. Queensland’s trade with India was $4.7 billion in the 2014 calendar year.
