Adani's rail line to service its controversial Queensland mine should be in public hands and the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani should be paying for it, says former state under treasurer Sir Leo Hielscher.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sir Leo said he supported the mooted $16.5 billion project in Queensland but said the public was being short-changed.
"We need Adani or other project of similar size," he said.
"For Adani, we would have owned the railway line and its rollingstock and he [Gautam Adani] would have paid for it," he said, delivering the annual Sir Thomas McIlwraith Lecture, organised by conservative think-tank, the Australian Institute for Progress.
"You see now, Adani owns the line and he asks us to front up with $1 billion [from the $5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility."
Sir Leo, 91, served 15 Queensland treasurers and 10 premiers from both sides of politics, working as deputy under treasurer, under treasurer and Queensland Treasury Corporation chair in a career that began in 1942.
He negotiated key contracts with mining companies to secure royalties for taxpayers, facilitated the development of Queensland's casino industry and two coal terminals and established the Queensland Treasury Corporation.
Labor Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has vetoed the almost $1 billion concessional loan for the Adani coal mine, while federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has hardened his stance against the mine.
Sir Leo expressed support for a new coal-fired power station in Queensland, an outcome federal Nationals MPs have been agitating for.
"What we need right now is a clean coal-fired power station to maximise our natural strength," he said.
"We have plenty of coal and coal-fired power generation produces one of the cheapest electricity."
Sir Leo, after whom the two Gateway Bridges were renamed in 2010 under the Bligh Labor government, also took aim at the Queensland debt level, which will reach $83.09 billion by 2021-22.
"This compares with the $20 billion debt throughout the '80s and '90s," he said.
Sir Leo said the current level of debt was a "worry" and there seemed to be no plan to pay it off.
"Sorry kids, sorry grandkids," he said.
"The interest cost even at today's relatively low interest rate would be fairly close to $2500 million per annum.
"We should be trying desperately to cap and reduce the size of this millstone."
His speech was followed by fond and supportive speeches by former Labor treasurers Keith deLacy and Andrew Fraser and Liberal treasurer Joan Sheldon.
