Adani mine needs $1bn public funding to go ahead, Barnaby Joyce says

The Adani Carmichael coalmine needs $1bn of government funds for a rail line because it is “a tipping point issue” to get the mine going, Barnaby Joyce has said.

Acting Prime Minister, Binary Joyce -
Adani rail $1bn "a tipping point issue."

The Nationals leader has given a full-throated defence of subsidising the mine, telling Radio National that Australians should support it because they are “citizens of the world” and warning those that oppose fossil fuels “if you live with the butterflies, you will die with the butterflies”.

Joyce, who is currently acting prime minister as Malcolm Turnbull is in India, where he has met mining magnate Gautam Adani, was asked about proposals to give a $900m concessional loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for a rail line from the Adani mine to the port.

Joyce has previously supported the loan, although environmental groups warn it does not meet the criteria for the fund.

He called it a “great idea”, claiming it would open up the Galilee basin as a coal precinct, provide electricity in India and create 3,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs.

Read Paul Karp’s story on The Guardian - “Adani mine needs $1bn public funding to go ahead, Barnaby Joyce says.”

(It’s because I am a “citizen of the world” that I oppose the Adani Carmichael coalmine as anyone who is as Mr Joyce argues we should be, then we understand that people are vastly more important than short term profit - I refuse to legitimise his weepingly sad ideology and if Australia has a $1bn too spare, it should be applied to ensuring our public energy system is moved as quickly as possible to renewable energy. The public piggy bank should not be plundered to further enrich the already rich - Robert McLean)