Bill Shorten says federal Labor is "increasingly sceptical" about Adani's huge Carmichael coal mine, as he formally confirmed ACTU president Ged Kearney as his hand-picked candidate for the Batman byelection.
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The Greens and environmental groups are already campaigning hard against the Queensland mine, even before the byelection in the inner-city Melbourne seat is formally under way and Ms Kearney, a former nurse, will have a tough fight on her hands to hold the once-safe Labor seat.
The unveiling of Ms Kearney as the Batman candidate came as Labor Left frontbencher Mark Butler blasted a push by the rival Right faction to stop him running for a second term as ALP president, and as tensions deepened in the ALP ahead of its national conference in July.
The dramatic shift in Mr Shorten's language on the eve of the byelection underscores just how concerned Labor is about losing what was once a safe Labor seat to the Greens' candidate Alex Bhathal. Ms Bhathal won more primary votes than Mr Feeney in the 2016 election, but the Labor candidate was returned on the back of Liberal preferences.
The Liberals look unlikely to run a candidate in the byelection.
Mr Shorten said a report in the Guardian that Adani may have altered a lab report while appealing a fine for spilling coal-laden water near Abbot Point was "scandalous".
If the allegation that Adani falsified scientific evidence was true "then that is a very serious matter and I call upon the federal government to immediately investigate these allegations", he said.
"We have had two years of bad coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, the reef is still there but it is under pressure since the environmental approvals were granted."
"Labor is increasingly sceptical and today’s revelation, if true, is incredibly disturbing and if Adani is relying on false information, that mine doesn’t deserve to go ahead."
Environmental groups believe that if Labor were to win the next election - and the mining project had not commenced - the ALP could prevent it by either writing new laws to block the mine, or by revoking approval that has been granted under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act, if new information about the project's impact on the environment came to light.
Alternatively, they also believe the formal opposition of the ALP to the project, as one of the two major parties of government, could bring it to a halt by scaring off potential investors and spooking the company.
Anti-Adani protesters gatecrashed the Labor media event and Ms Kearney said that she herself did not believe the coal mine would go ahead, but both she and Mr Shorten stopped short of pledging Labor's outright opposition to the project.
Mr Butler, a shadow cabinet member who is yet to decide whether to contest the presidency again, criticised a plan flagged by Labor MP Tim Hammond and Transport Workers' Union secretary Tony Sheldon - who could run for the position for the Right faction - to ban frontbench MPs being president.
"This is more about some people not liking what I’m saying about how our party could operate more democratically," he said, referring to a recent incendiary speech on party reform.
"There is a long history of senior MPs, more senior than me, operating effectively as a party president."
Those figures include Labor luminaries John Faulkner and Mick Young, and former premiers Neville Wran, Mike Rann and Anna Bligh.
Earlier this week, Mr Shorten told the National Press Club that if the mine "doesn't stack up commercially or if it doesn't stack up environmentally, it will absolutely not receive our support".
Labor's shadow cabinet is considering whether to formally oppose the project; there is unease in the caucus about the project going ahead, but even those who oppose the project admit it may not be possible for the federal opposition to stop the mine.
A poll of 3312 people, conducted by pollsters ReachTEL on January 25 and commissioned by the Stop Adani Alliance, found 65.1 per cent of Australians opposed or strongly opposed Indian mining company Adani building the new coal mine in Queensland.
Queensland Greens senator Andrew Bartlett said it was no coincidence that federal Labor had toughened its language about the Adani mine within 24 hours of the byelection being called.
"Bill Shorten is no Caped Crusader - we know there’s an election coming when Labor starts to parade their green credentials," Senator Bartlett said.
