LABOR has backed away from comments it made in a letter to a local anti-coal mine group that said the Shenhua Watermark mine on the Liverpool Plains would not go ahead because of low international coal prices.
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The Caroona Coal Action Group (CCAG) was surprised to find such a definitive statement in the letter from Bill Shorten’s office.
The letter, penned by one of Mr Shorten’s staffers, was in response to CCAG asking Mr Shorten to back the scrapping of the mine, as it flew in the face of the party’s policy to transition the nation to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
There has been speculation the mine will not proceed, given the current low price of coal, but never confirmed by a political party or the company.
A Labor spokesman told The Leader the statement was a mistake.
“In the case of both the Adani Carmichael coal mine and the Shenhua coal mine in the Liverpool Plains, whether a particular project proceeds is a commercial decision and mining approvals are generally a matter for state governments,” the spokesman said.
CCAG chairwoman Sue Lyle said most of the letter was about the party’s renewable-energy policy, with one throwaway line about Shenhua.
“Within the letter, the exact wording was: ‘Shenhua is not proceeding with their proposed coal mine in the Liverpool Plains because of the depressed coal price.’ It’s an incredible sentence to put in a letter, with nothing else to back it up whatsoever, because it’s a very definitive sentence,” Ms Lyle said.
“It left us wondering where Mr Shorten’s information had come from, why Shenhua was not speaking on the matter or why the information hadn’t come from (NSW Premier) Mike Baird or (federal Environment Minister) Greg Hunt, who would be the logical people to deliver such information.”
The Leader also asked Labor to clarify its position on the Shenhua mine.
“As we did in government, Labor will ensure that any proposed mining projects meet the highest environmental standards before providing environmental approval,” a party spokesman said.
