Criminal penalty underscores Adani’s appalling environmental and legal record

Adani simply cannot be trusted with our climate, rivers, aquifers and threatened species.

In response to the Brisbane Magistrates Court’s decision to fine Adani $20,000 for the criminal offence of providing “false and misleading documents to an administering authority” in the company’s 2017-18 annual return, ACF’s Senior Stop Adani Campaigner Christian Slattery said:

“Adani’s sentencing today for a criminal offence underscores its reputation as a company that cares more about its profits than obeying the law.

“Adani is a repeat offender. Its mine hasn’t even been dug, but it has polluted waters near the Great Barrier Reef and sensitive wetland ecosystems with coal sludge.

“Now, the company has been caught out lying to the government about land clearing on the site of the Carmichael mine.

“Unfortunately, this small $20,000 fine will not act as a deterrent for a company that has a well-established record of environmental destruction and non-compliance with the law.

“Adani simply cannot be trusted with our climate, rivers, aquifers and threatened species.

“If this mine is dug, the coal from it will unleash billions of tonnes of pollution into our atmosphere, contributing to even worse bushfire seasons than the one Australians have experienced this summer.

“Any company that works with Adani is hitching its reputation to a mining company that has a track-record of breaking the law and leaving a trail of environmental destruction.”

/Public Release. View in full here.