AMWU State Secretary Andrew Dettmer has slammed yesterday’s proposed bid by the Queensland Coal Industry Rail Group (QCIRG) to buy out the below-rail network for central Queensland.
“Premier Bligh should reject this offer and honour her promise never to break up Queensland Rail. It’s completely contrary to the commitments we received from Anna Bligh and Andrew Fraser who had argued that privatisation was all about enhancing the viability of Queensland Rail.
“You don’t enhance the viability of a rail network by breaking it up and taking out its most profitable sector.”
Mr Dettmer said the AMWU has been vehemently opposed to QR privatisation plans since they were first tabled - on the grounds that any buyer will look first and foremost to the profitability of the venture.
“Allowing a profit-hungry consortium to take control of our vitally-important rail system will have dire consequences for the people of regional Queensland well into the future.
“The coal companies will slash anything that is not profitable. They will pillage and plunder the system for their own purposes without a thought for the communities left devastated behind them.”
Mr Dettmer said the bid makes a mockery of claims by the mining industry that the Resources Super Profits Tax will ruin the Australian mining industry.
“This purchase also completely flies in the face of Rio Tinto - one member of the consortium - declaring Australia as their biggest ‘sovereign risk’ after the announcement of the new mining tax.
“So on one hand, they’re complaining that the Resource Super Profits Tax will send them broke – on the other, they’re spending billions of dollars on buying up new infrastructure.
“The coal companies are acting in a greedy and hypocritical way and it will ultimately be to the detriment of everyday Queenslanders.”
Mr Dettmer said government-owned infrastructure had long been a way for the State Government to intervene in the welfare of Queensland’s remote communities.
“People living in Blackwater pay the same taxes as people living in Kenmore – they deserve the same respect from their elected representatives.”