Labor is dragging the chain on the approval process to expand the Abbot Point Port, making it more of an administrate threat to the Adani Coal project than the recent Federal Government’s technical issue.

Shadow Minister for State Development and Mines Andrew Cripps said Labor’s unnecessary intervention in the application process had significantly delayed the project with no end in sight for the EIS.

“There is a lack of clear progress on this EIS, which commenced in March, and is a much bigger concern than the recent administrative hiccup in Canberra,” Mr Cripps said.

“The issue which has arisen at the Commonwealth level, while unfortunate, is a matter of some paperwork being misplaced – it will be sorted in a matter of weeks.

“There is much more uncertainty associated with the Labor Palaszczuk Government here in Queensland.

“On 11 March this year, Labor announced it would withdraw the applications submitted by the previous LNP Government and submit another one, triggering a new Environmental Impact Statement process.

“We’ve heard very little about this process from Minister Anthony Lynham, except for a statement on 19 May indicating the process would take six to nine months and an update on 24 June that the EIS work was ‘steadily progressing’.”

Mr Cripps said Labor’s support for the expansion of the Port at Abbot Point and the development of the Galilee Basin had been inconsistent and ‘lukewarm’.

“The Federal LNP Government has given a clear commitment to correcting this technical issue as soon as possible, but we’ve got absolutely no commitment from the Palaszczuk  Labor Government that it is doing what it can to complete this EIS,” he said.

“The clock is ticking on this critically important opportunity for our state’s resources sector.

“For communities like Bowen and North and Central Queensland generally – we can’t afford this lethargic complacency from a dithering Palaszczuk Government.”