Premier Bligh is reported to have told a media conference that “Queensland taxpayers have, in effect, been subsidising the transport arrangements [of coal companies] for several decades”, while Public Works Minister Robert Schwarten told a central Queensland radio audience that coal companies had been “bludging off taxpayers”.
The government claims represent an “extraordinary reaction” to a request from the coal industry for the government to examine an alternative offer to buy the central Queensland coal track network, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said.
“In the parliament and in the media, both the premier and deputy premier have, in the recent past, made it clear that the coal industry pays for all infrastructure built on its behalf by government-owned corporations,” Roche said.
QRC claims the coal rail network is specifically excluded from government subsidy commitments under the seven-year service contract (2006) between the Queensland government and QR.
A complementary regional transport service contract ensures the provision of scheduled general freight train services to western and rural centres of Queensland (which excludes coal). The contract specifically separates regional train services from QR's freight business.
“The industry is simply asking for its offer to be judged alongside the government’s preferred option of a public float of both the coal trains and coal track businesses,” Roche said.
Earlier this week, QRC met with Anglo Coal Australia, BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, Ensham Resources, Felix Resources, Jellinbah Resources, Macarthur Coal, New Hope Coal Australia, Peabody Energy, QCoal, Rio Tinto Coal Australia, Vale, Wesfarmers Resources and Xstrata Coal over the issue.
The producers were unanimous in their view that the privatisation model that floated a vertically integrated coal business was not in the interests of the coal industry or Queensland taxpayers.
They have committed to delivering an early alternative proposal to the Queensland government.
“Surely it is in the interests of Queensland taxpayers to have on the table an alternative offer from the coal industry, which may not only produce an attractive short-term return to the state but also deliver a superior long-term result in improving the performance of the export supply chain,” he said.
“The dividend for taxpayers from an efficient export supply chain is more coal royalties funding more hospital beds, more teachers and more police.”
