JEEZE, HOW DID YOU CATCH ME OUT? QUESTION TIME FOR QLD MINISTER FOR HEALTH LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG Q. What do Chinese investments, “Resort” expansions, Chinese campers, coal mining, gold, cheap Chinese workers and FIFO airport, New Hope Coal and some relinquished mining tenements have in common? A. Lawrence Springborg. It’s all happening in his electorate! Several years ago, local residents in the Elbow Valley district near Warwick, on the Southern Downs area of Queensland, were justifably alarmed at the huge upscaling of the Chinese-owned Cherrabah Resort. The redevelopment plans included upscaling accommodation to house 4,000 people. Locals think it sounds more like a mining camp and believe it is associated with the recent purchases, by Chinese interests, of mining leases. These leases cover the high-quality farming lands and biodiverse forests of the Southern Downs district by Chinese interests. Locals believe the Cherrabah “resort” development and the recent purchase of the Glendon Camping & Caravan Grounds (west of Warwick) by Chinese Interests, are both linked to the Governments plans to allow cheap labour to be flown in through the recently built Wagner Airport Toowoomba, and to be housed locally to facilitate mining in the Southern Downs. Curious locals also noticed that the coal mining lease no longer covers Lawrence Springborg’s farm at Yelarbon. The property looks conspicuous by this absence. Resorts? Man-camps for miners? Or just an outright invasion by stealth? Timeline - Cherrabah 1. In 2004 the Cherrabah Resort was purchased by Chinese company (Joyful View Garden Real Estate Development Resort Company Pty Ltd/Royal Duke Opulent Investment & Development Co.) Its directors are listed as Wen Wei Ma and Wen Xing Ma of Zhong Shan City, China, and a Richard Taylor, of Randwick, in New South Wales. 2. The government lobbyist for the pleasantly named “Joyful Garden” brothers is Marketplace Communications P/L, staffed by Ken Crooke, Sir Joh’s former media advisor Ken Crooke is the Former State Secretary of the National Party), he is also a lobbyist for gas company APLNG via Asia Pacific Corporation Pty Ltd. 3. In 2005 they commenced laying off local workers. STATE Development Minister Tony McGrady was unaware of staff reductions at the Cherrabah Homestead Resort, despite his department having sponsored provisional business visas in 2004 for Chinese owner Wen Xing Ma and his brother Wen Wei Ma. A company representative claimed the staff layoffs were part of “…down-sizing and re-evaluation” of the resort. 4. In 2006, Cherrabah Resort fended off numerous allegations of improper practices, including employing illegal Chinese workers, non-payment of entitlements to staff and unsafe work practices. More than a dozen staff, many of them Elbow Valley, Warwick and Killarney locals, were made redundant 5. In 2007, local farmers become aware that Cherrabah Resort was attempting to source a large amount of water from either groundwater, or by putting a 25 km pipeline into a local reservoir. (Making quit a lie of the stated “down-sizing”!) 6. In 2008, a preliminary approval was given by council for a massive re-development (to cater for up to 4,000 people) 7. In 2009, another Chinese company based on the Gold Coast (Foundation Investment Company) buys the Glendon Camping and Caravan Grounds, in the Gold fossicking area west of Warwick. Representatives for the owners stated they [quote] bought primarily as an investment…but another party may be looking at coming on board who may consider upgrading some of the facilities [unquote]. 8. Locals suspect another mining camp in the making. 9. In 2010 DERM approved Cherrabah Resort’s application to tap into precious aquifers. The conditions were based on extracting 200 megalitres per year, with the granted license to Joyful View Garden Real Estate Development Resort stipulating the average annual intake to be 50ML, but with a maximum of 127ML in any year until 2020, much to the concern of downstream farmers who believe they will eventually lose access to this water due to unsustainable drawdowns and aquifer depletion. No scientific data underpinning the decision was ever provided by DERM to impacted landholders. 10. In 2010, the Resort development was referred to the Commonwealth for assessment under the EPBC Act as a controlled action , due to the presence of 17 threatened flora and fauna species. Including the Koala and Spotted Quoll (Only an estimated 10,000 of the latter little Aussie battlers survive, so habitat protection is vital.) 11. In 2011 a planning application for redevelopment of Cherrabah was submitted to council and approved. In April 2012 – Prior to local government election the outgoing Southern Downs Councillors weakened imposed regulations and allowed concessions to facilitate the Cherrabah development. “Councillors watered down many of the 100-plus conditions they placed on the massive Elbow Valley resort redevelopment, which could house up to 4000 residents”. 12. In June 2012 -the resorts Chinese owners continued to challenge the councils conditions on their proposed 4000-person mega-development in court, so Mayor Peter Blundell wrote to Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jeff Seeney asking his department to assess the plan. 13. In 2014 the Cherrabah redevelopment was listed as deferred . One assumes pending further approvals under the Commonwealth EPBC Act, the powers of which the LNP are fighting to have given back to the states so they can fast-track development approvals such as this one. 14. In April 2014, Cherrabah submitted to the Federal Govt. a Notice of Variation to their Proposal, to include a further 934 residential units and staff accommodation. 15. In July 2014 – Tim Nichols (Treasurer of Queensland & the Minister for Trade) spoke at the Queensland Construction Day Networking Reception, hosted by the Property Council of Australia, acknowledged Cherrabah Resort parent company “Royal duke” and stated that Cherrabah Resort “is now undergoing a major refurbishment and expansion.” 16. As the Commonwealth has apparently has not reached a finding on the project, Mr Nicholls comment is somewhat pre-emptive (or are they illegally expanding?) 17. From this it looks like the LNP is confident they will receive federal approval for a twice massively up-scaled development… and Aussie farmers are well on their way to becoming an endangered species, just like the poor little Spotted Quolls. Selling off the Southern Downs high-yielding farms and food export by Chinese for Chinese, via Wagner’s Airport 1. March 2010: The Southern Downs Regional Council sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Sanmenxia City China, which sets out an interest by both councils to work closely together in the development of mutual trade and investment. 2. “Initial discussions with the Sanmenxia delegation have indicated a strong interest in direct investment in purchasing high-yielding managed agricultural properties in our region.” 3. Sanmenxia, which is located in the central west of China, has a strong mining and manufacturing base. The city’s economy has a strong focus on minerals processing, especially aluminium. It is also the third largest gold producer in China. Chinese Coal Mining Leases and politicians, plus New Hope Coal and the very fortunate the Hon. Mr Springborg MP. The two companies with mining leases surrounding Springborg’s property at Yelarbon, Queensland, are New Hope Coal and XMC Australia. XMC 1. XMC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD was formed on 2010-02-05 in Australia 2. Xuzhou Coal Mining Group Company (XMC) is a state-owned company of the Jiangsu Provincial government, China. 3. Larry Anthony’s company, SAS Consulting, were the government lobbyist firm who represented XMC until 10 July 2014 SAS was formed by former Federal Ministers the Hon Con Sciacca AO (Labor) and the Hon Larry Anthony (Coalition), together with Chief Executive Peter Costantini. 4. In March 2013, CHINESE state-owned enterprise Xuzhou Coal Mining Group Corporation (XMC) launched their Australian operations at the Queensland Club, promising to respect everything about the beautiful, free and wealthy country of Australia. 5. In 2012, XMC had purchased nearly 4000 sq km of coal exploration leases from Cokal Pty Ltd (Peter Lynch). Also at the launch event were SAS operatives including Larry Anthony. 6. The Cripps Ministerial Diary notes attendance at “XMC Launch Event”: cabinet.qld.gov.au/ministers/diaries/assets/cripps-diary-mar-13.pdf 7. XMC have been involved in serious environmental damage related to a coal mine in Bangladesh. 8. The International Accountability Project reports that mining operations at Barapukuria have destroyed roughly 300 acres of land, impacting about 2,500 people in seven villages, as land subsidence of over one meter in depth has destroyed crops and lands and damaged homes. People in 15 villages have also reportedly lost their access to water, as huge quantities of water pumped out for the Barapukuria mine caused a rapid drop in water levels. The mine has been the subject of substantial community opposition and the subject of ongoing protests. The mine was initially developed and operated u nder a six year agreement with a consortium comprising the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) and Xuzhou Coal Mining Group Company (XMC). New Hope Coal 1. The lease over the Springborg’s property was held by Northern Energy Corporation (NEC) as part of EPC 1158. 2. NEC lease was taken over by New Hope Coal (Arkdale PL) in 2011 3. In 2010 NEC had relinquished the blocks covering Springborg’s property as part of the conditions attached to the licence which required that the tenement be reduced by 20% in Year 2. 4. NHC had declared that the uncertainty surrounding the State Govt finalisation of the Strategic Cropping Land legislation had resulted in reduced programs in this EPC licence 5. At the time of the sale to New Hope Coal, Chris Rawlings was the Chairman of Northern Energy Corporation (NEC). He is also an Adjunct Professor with the Division of Mining and Minerals Process Engineering at the University of Queensland. 6. Robert Neale was the Chairman of New Hope Coal. Neale is now the chairman of the Queensland Resources Council (QRC). 7. In 2014, Dr Chris Rawlings received an award from Campbell Newman and Robert Neale at a QRC function, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the resources sector: https://qrc.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=3559 Our thanks to Miss Magpie, who has gone out to thoroughly scrub her beak from all those smelly worms. PHOTO: Lawrence Springborg puzzles over something.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 06:34:58 +0000