No public funding in Adani's coal mine: Turnbull

Gautam Adani's plan to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia has been hampered time and again. 

There is no public funding for Adani's $21.7 billion coal mine project, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said as he sought to assure a protester dressed in a fish costume that he took climate change "as seriously as you".

Turnbull made these remarks during an election campaign in South Australia.

An environmental protester dressed as the clown fish from animated movie 'Finding Nemo' asked him to commit to no public funding for Indian mining giant Adani's controversial project.

"There's no public funding in Adani's coal mine," Turnbull said. He told the protester that he took climate change "as seriously as you".

Adani's plan to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia has been hampered time and again. A federal court in August last year had revoked the original approval due to environmental concerns.

In October last year, the project got a new lease of life after the Australian government gave its re-approval.

Reacting to Turnbull's remark, Director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial

Analysis (IEEFA) Tim Buckley said, "With the permanent decline in seaborne thermal coal markets causing a meltdown in the Australian thermal coal industry, it is hard to imagine a more inopportune moment to attempt to open a multi-billion dollar new mine."

Echoing similar sentiments, Greenpeace Australia Pacific reef campaigner Shani Tager said, "While this off-the-cuff comment is welcome, the prime minister still needs to announce a credible environmental policy to protect the reef from the dangers of coal for future generations."

"Carmichael would be a complete disaster for the climate and the Great Barrier Reef and we welcome this position from the prime minister. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are right to rule out throwing taxpayers money at this disastrous project."

"The Carmichael mine would mean more dredging in the Great Barrier Reef, more ships through its waters and more carbon emissions at a time when the reef is suffering from its worst ever bleaching," Tager said. 

Photograph: Reuters