Three years later, Indian conglomerate Adani's promise to Australia still isn't adding up just as we said in 2022. Despite its multibillion-dollar pledge, the mining company continues to payzero corporate tax in Australia.

Our 2022 article exposed Adani's false job promises, revealing that the Adani mine in central Queensland was employing as few as 300 production staff,despite being massivelysubsidisedby the Queensland Government.

A spokesperson for theMining and Energy Unionsaid:

*IndependentAustralia twice asked Bravus Mining and Resources (Adani's new name in Queensland) how many full-time jobs had been created at the mine. It refused to answer.

In 2017, in a joint media release with PremierAnnastacia Palaszczuk, Adani committed to generating10,000direct/indirect jobs in Queensland.

Two years later, the Premiertold Parliament:

This was despite the company's own economist providing an affidavit at a land court in 2015 that the project would create pnly483 jobsin central Queensland and 723 in the rest of the state.

And this was at a time when the analysis was dealing with an annual output of40 million tonnesa year instead of the new plan to produce10 milliontonnes of coalper annum.

Trump's suspension ofthe Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has signalled to business elites that compliancewith anti-corruption laws is optional for the well-connected.

Despite the companyannouncingthat the mine would not requirea cent of Australian taxpayer dollars and would be 100 per cent financed through the Adani Groups resources, the Queensland Government is subsidising the project through a long-term royaltiesdeal.

At a time when the Government needs every cent it can earn to pay for flood restoration, the company is able to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's coffers every year.

TheRoyalty Deferral and Repayment Agreementwith the company was created under the State Government'sResources Regional Development Frameworkwhich requiresjob creation, common user infrastructure and a positive impact on the states finances.

In March 2017, Adaniannouncedthe project would generate:

So using the company's own figures, how much should Bravus be paying in royalties each year?

The mine's life was projected to produce 40 million tonnes of coal for60 years, meaning that the $22 billion was due to be paid in the first 30 years.

Adjustments to this forecast need to be made because the price of thermal coalmore than doubledbetween March 2017 and January this year (from $106.6 million a tonne to $274.2 million) and projected output has been cut by a quarter to 10 million tonnes.

The $22 billion becomes $56.32 billion to account for the price difference and, in turn, $14 billion to account for the drop in output.

The analysis of taxes and royalties presented to the land court inAttachment Bin 2015 shows a ratio of roughly $2 in royalties to every $3 in taxes for much of the period.

Of the $14 billion total, that would be about $2.8 billion in royalties, meaning that over 30 years, Queensland is missing out on more than $93 million in royalties every year for the length of the agreement.

It would mean that if the figure of 300 jobs is correct, Queenslanders are subsidising every job at the mine by more than $300,000 for every year of the agreement.

A report condemning the Adani Group's history of alleged fraud, bullying and criminal acts has the potential to destroy what's left of the company's reputation.

AnABC investigationin 2017 suggested the agreement would see Adani pay just $2 million a year in royalties.

Among other questions not answered by Bravus were:

The deal means the company will have to pay the royalties at some stage in the future but how and when is asecret.

At a time when the Queensland Government needs to find$1 billion to repairpublic infrastructure themuch needed public fundingfrom Bravus will not be available.

* EDITOR'S NOTE:

As mentioned above, Independent Australia twice asked Bravus Mining and Resources how many full-time jobs had been created at the mine but they did not answer the question.

A spokesperson, however, provided the following responses, which they have asked us to publish in full:

From:Bravus Media

Sent:Wednesday, 30 March 2022 2:34 PM

To:Stephen Bishop;IA Editor

From:Stephen Bishop

Sent:Tuesday, 29 March 2022 8:58 AM

To:Bravus Media

Subject:[EXTERNAL] Bravus: Failure to answer

Thanks for that but some questions were unanswered.

• Given that the venture stacked up financially, would not require a cent of taxpayers' dollars and you did not want any special favours, why did Adani/Bravus negotiate with the Queensland Government to delay the payment of millions of dollars in royalties for a period of several years?

• Will I be correct in writing in my article that Bravus is not paying any royalties at the moment?

• How many full-time jobs are there actually at the mine?

• How many mining jobs are there on site?
• How many of the people working at the mine are FIFO.

Thanks again.

Steve Bishop

From:Bravus Media

Sent:Wednesday, 30 March 2022 2:34 PM

To:Stephen Bishop;IA Editor

Steve Bishopis a journalist and author. You can read more fromSteveatstevebishop.net.

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