The left-leaning Guardian Australia news site revealed that state Science, Information Technology, Innovation and Arts Minister Ian Walker received a 2012 election campaign donation of $2000 from New Hope board member, Bill Grant, in October 2011.
The site noted that Walker subsequently oversaw the department “which cleared levels of air pollution from uncovered coal trains in Brisbane before the expansion of New Hope’s Acland mine”
“The donation would have been secret under the Liberal National Party’s widely-criticised move to raise the threshold for declaring contributions from $1000 to $12,400 last year,” the Guardian reported.
The site also drew attention to a pollution study that was released by Walker’s department to companies including New Hope a week before its public release in 2013.
“Walker said his office had no role in the pollution study, for which coal companies had paid $250,000,” the Guardian reported.
“Asked if those payments had created a conflict of interest, Walker said the decision to engage ‘the state’s top independent scientists’ [showed] a proactive role in ensuring clean air for Queenslanders.”
Queensland Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the LNP had paved the way for a return to the graft of “brown paper bag” politics in the state.
On the Walker-related matters, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said the appropriate authorities would deal with the issues.
He also referenced his spat with former Liberal party backer Clive Palmer as proof the LNP was independent.
“Who was the biggest donor previously? I’ve given you the name and we said no when he asked for something to be done that wasn’t kosher,” he said.
Newman has long claimed Palmer sought favourable treatment for his company’s Galilee Basin-linked rail and port plans – with Palmer forming his own political party in the subsequent fallout.
New Hope’s Acland coal mine expansion received Queensland government environmental approval on December 19.
This pre-Christmas approval has received an especially strong rebuke from radio shock jock Alan Jones, who grew up in the nearby town of Oakey. He claims Newman personally promised him that there would be no stage three expansion of the mine.
