QRC: Premier correct – Aurizon must sit down with the regulator

THE Queensland Resources Council is supporting Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in her efforts to address "growing Japanese concern with the coal export impasse created by monopoly rail operator Aurizon".

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the Premier’s urgent call for Aurizon and the independent regulator – the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) – to resolve the threat from Aurizon to halt the export of up to 20 million tonnes of coal was “absolutely correct”.

The Premier said today, as she departed to lead a trade mission to Japan, “I think it’s very important that Aurizon and the QCA sit down and try to resolve this issue as a matter of urgency.”

Mr Macfarlane said, The QRC welcomes the Premier’s visit to Japan and her plan to reassure steelmakers in Tokyo about ongoing supply of Queensland’s high-quality coal.

"Queensland coal exports to Japan have increased to $7.8 billion – the equivalent of one in every $9 of the State’s total exports – under the Palaszczuk Government.

"When the Bligh Government privatised QR and established Aurizon, all stakeholders were aware that the management of the Central Queensland Coal Network would be subject to independently and transparently determined undertakings enforceable by the QCA.

“The QCA’s regulatory process is still underway. We only have a draft decision on the table, yet Aurizon has already decided to choke coal supply to Queensland’s customers, like the very worried steel industry in Japan," he said. 

"The QRC and its member companies have worked with the QCA through its review process. In stark contrast, Aurizon have sought to delay, and most recently with an application for judicial review to the Supreme Court, tried to upend the draft QCA process."

www.qrc.org.au

ends