PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) on Tuesday called on the State Parliament to scrutinise comments made by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, regarding claims that taxpayers have been subsidising the local coal industry.

In a response to questions on Monday, Bligh said that Queensland taxpayers had, in effect, been subsidising the coal producers’ transport arrangements for “several decades”.

She noted that the subsidisation would come to an end with the floating Queensland Rail’s (QR’s) coal and freight network as part of its privatisation process.

QRC, the peak representative body for the State’s resource sector industries, said on Tuesday that the Premier and a senior Cabinet Minister had both referred to ”coal industry subsidies” in the past 24 hours, contradicting previous public statements.

Queensland Public Works Minister Robert Schwarten told a central Queensland radio audience that coal companies had been “bludging off taxpayers”.

“I find it remarkable that after 11 years in power, the state government is conceding that it has effectively misled the electorate,” said QRC CEO Michael Roche.

“In the Parliament and in the media, both the Premier and Deputy Premier have in the recent past made it clear that that the coal industry pays for all infrastructure built on its behalf by government-owned corporations.

‘These subsidy claims represent an extraordinary reaction to a request from the coal industry for the government to examine an alternative offer to buy the central Queensland coal track network.”

Roche said that the industry was asking for its offer to be judged alongside the government’s preferred option of a public float of both the coal trains and coal track businesses.

“Surely it is in the interests of Queensland taxpayers to have on the table an alternative offer from the coal industry, which may not only produce an attractive short-term return to the state, but also deliver a superior long-term result in improving the performance of the export supply chain,” he added.

A local group of coal miners, including BHP Billiton, Anglo Coal and Rio Tinto, met on Monday to take a decision on whether to bid for the QR assets.

Newswire Bloomberg on Tuesday quoted adviser Nick Greiner as saying that the Queensland coal producers would meet at the end of the month, after which they planned to make a counter offer to the state’s A$3-billion initial share sale of the assets.

“There will be a progress meeting in three weeks, toward the end of the month,” Bloomberg quoted Greiner as saying.

The Queensland government was looking to sell QR’s freight and infrastructure servicing businesses as an integrated transport and logistics enterprise through an initial public offering (IPO).

The government is proposing to initially retain between 25% and 40% of the new QR. The remaining percentage of the new business would be offered for sale through an IPO.

The divested QR is expected to float on the ASX by the end of this year.

Bligh told reporters on Monday that QR would be sold by way of a public float, and as such, the coal miners would be subject to the same restrictions as any other individual or consortium who wished to invest in the company, meaning a 15% ownership restriction.

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