Mayor delivers strong message for jobs
Date published: 22 March 2017
Queensland’s delegation to India could prove a decisive factor in the proposed Adani mine at Carmichael going ahead, Townsville mayor Cr Jenny Hill said today.
Back in Townsville, Cr Hill said the delegation with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and regional mayors delivered a powerful message of support for the mine and jobs.
“Travelling to India together to meet with the Adani Group’s chairman Gautam Adani and the board in person showed just how serious we are about fighting for jobs for our communities,” Cr Hill said.
“The Carmichael mine, rail and port project is a once in a generation opportunity that we have to embrace with both hands.
“The project will be heavily conditioned to protect the environment. With strong safeguards in place, we need the mine to proceed and that was our message to Adani.
“For Townsville, it was an opportunity to push our credentials with our ready, skilled workforce, as a logical FIFO base for Adani’s operations.
“All of us were encouraged by the most positive comments yet by Mr Adani saying that there was no reason why the project would not proceed.”
Cr Hill said the visit was an opportunity to discuss with Adani opportunities in Townsville for a number of energy projects including solar and base load power.
The visit took in a tour of the Mundra Special Economic Zone and Adani’s Mundra Port, the largest privately owned port in India and a visit to Kamuthi Solar Power Project, the largest plant of its type in the world.
The mayor also visited Singapore on her homeward leg to meet with the country’s Deputy Secretary (Policy) at the Singapore Ministry of Defence, Mr Keith Tan, to discuss Townsville’s prominent role in the Australia Singapore Military Training Initiative.
“This was the first opportunity as mayor to meet with a senior official of the Defence Ministry in Singapore and make introductions on behalf of our city,” Cr Hill said.
“It was an excellent time to discuss how we want to work with the Singapore government to ensure Townsville businesses benefit from the significant investment they will be making in our region.”
Cr Hill also met with Australia’s High Commissioner to Singapore Mr Bruce Gosper, senior representatives of James Cook University’s Singapore campus, and officials of Singtel the parent company of Optus – the council’s communications provider - to look at the latest in Smart City innovation and data storage.
