Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Senator Brandis. The minister will recall the question my colleague Senator Di Natale asked when the Senate last met, which referred to the Adani corporation seeking funding from Chinese government owned agencies for its reef-cooking, job-destroying coalmine in Queensland. Subsequent reports indicate that funding agreements between Adani and Chinese government owned sources is imminent. Given that Chinese government owned enterprises and export credit agencies invariably require materials for projects they fund to be sourced from China, can the minister confirm that this Adani deal would be at the direct expense of local jobs, further illustrating just how hollow and false the jobs claims about this project are?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I can't confirm that. The proposition you've put to me is not correct. In fact, notwithstanding certain claims made during the Queensland election campaign which were very much at variance from the truth, on 18 February last year the Treasurer of the Queensland government, Mr Curtis Pitt, wrote to the then federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Mr Josh Frydenberg, and requested that the railway construction project across the Galilee Basin to service the Adani Carmichael project be considered for funding through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. You wouldn't have thought that, to hear some of the rhetoric that came from Ms Palaszczuk and Mr Pitt during the election campaign, but it is the case, I can tell you, Senator Bartlett, that Mr Pitt actually wrote to the federal minister in February of last year asking for that consideration through the NAIF.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Bartlett on a point of order.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order goes to relevance. My question was explicitly about the jobs impact of Chinese government finance, not about the NAIF.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can't instruct Senator Brandis how to answer the question. He has 47 seconds remaining, and I remind the senator of the question.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We can take that as preamble or prologue, Senator Bartlett, but I thought context mattered here. As to the commercial arrangements that may be made between Adani and other potential financiers, I'm not in a position to speak, Senator Bartlett. But what I can tell you is that the successful financing of the Adani project does hold the prospect of the greatest increase in job opportunities for people in Central and Northern Queensland for many years, if not decades, which is why the federal government supports it. I know it has been controversial. I know many claims, including many wild claims, were made about this in the Queensland election campaign, but we have our eyes focused firmly on jobs.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bartlett, a supplementary question.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Seeing the minister has mentioned the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, if the Adani corporation does make funding agreements with Chinese government owned agencies, as is expected, will the federal government then withdraw its support for the provision of any funding through the NAIF for this economically unviable mining project—a use of taxpayer funds which, the minister would know from the Queensland state election, is clearly opposed by taxpayers?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't accept any of that. For a start, the way these major infrastructure projects are financed is through financing from various sources, and often that financing comes from the public sector. Senator Bartlett, your memory may stretch back to the development of the Bowen Basin by Sir Leslie Thiess in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the great coalmining projects in Australian mining history. There was a lot of public financing that went into the financing of the Bowen Basin way back in the 1960s and the 1970s, so the suggestion that public funds may not be invested to finance major state infrastructure projects is, quite frankly, ridiculous. As to what the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility does in relation to any possible financial accommodation made by some Chinese interests, I'm not in a position to tell you.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Final supplementary question, Senator Bartlett.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Noting the federal government's stated intent to ban donations to political parties from foreign corporations and that electoral disclosure records show the Adani corporation has donated tens of thousands of dollars to both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party at both federal and state levels over recent years, does the minister accept that political parties should now stop taking donations from Adani?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If there is an application to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, as I understand there is, then it will be considered by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, or the board of governors of that entity, in due course. By the way, on the question of the issue of public investment in the funding of major infrastructure, it has been pointed out to me by one of my colleagues that the Rudd government invested $1.2 billion of public money in Hunter local rail through the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Bartlett on a point of order.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order is on relevance. The minister seems to be one question behind each time. My question went directly to the issue of receiving foreign donations from the Adani corporation.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bartlett, as you rightly point out, this government is committed to banning foreign donations. My colleague Senator Cormann, the Special Minister of State, will be introducing legislation into the parliament in the near future to do that very thing. And we look forward to the Australian Greens—themselves no mean receivers, by the way, of foreign donations—and the Australian Labor Party supporting that.