Any economist with a dash of common sense would see that conditions are not right for digging more holes... But this is where this country is about: more holes... 

Do you remember what that failed accountant who is not an economist (Joe Hatchet the treasurer for bigger deficits) said last year?... Read the toon at top carefully... THAT WAS A YEAR AGO... Then the price of coal had dropped a tad, enough to unsettle a few miners... Now the price of everything this country exports, basically old dirt, has tanked so much below half its past value, that it's totally uneconomical to dig more stuff... But our Idiot-in-Chief, Abbott, still claims that coal is the saviour of the world...

Contrarily, it's killing it, or at least it's warming it up in the wrong direction. People are already dying from climate change... No sweat... or plenty of sweat as the humidity and the heat comes in. 

The Queensland Government is giving the Indian conglomerate Adani more time to finalise a rail deal for a massive coal mine in the state's Galilee Basin.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney last month announced a tight timetable for locking in a final agreement with Adani, which would see the Queensland Government taking a temporary minority share in the 300-kilometre rail line.

"We're not going to drag on endlessly," Mr Seeney told reporters on November 17.

"Our offer to be involved stands for a particular period of time.

"[The Statement of Intent] that we've signed this morning is to - within 30 days - lock in the details of the investment and how it's going to work [and] 90 days to finalise the documents."

Mr Seeney had confirmed there was no agreement on the details after 30 days, but he now says the deadlines were flexible.

"The timetables in the Statement of Intent were indicative and we will continue to negotiate in good faith," Mr Seeney told ABC TV's 7.30 program in a written statement.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/adani-coal-rail-deal-gets-extension-of-time-deputy-premier-says/5971610

See article above and toon at top... If I were Adani (which I'm not) I would not worry about any deadlines — as digging coal from the Galilee Basin would presently be done at a loss... Time to pack tools with mothballs and wait, cleverly... Annoy the Queensland government as much as possible until it becomes so desperate for the Galilee development that it offers to build the entire railway for no cost to Adani... 

The federal budget has suffered a $30 billion revenue write-down over the next four years because of the collapsing iron ore price, according to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Mr Abbott has revealed the growing revenue black hole at a business lunch in Sydney.

"Since last year's budget, collapsing iron ore prices and the subsequent write-down in tax receipts have already driven a cut in government revenue of more than $30 billion over four years," he said.

After a recent bounce, the benchmark Tianjin iron ore spot price in China crept back just above $US50 a tonne yesterday, but is still less than half the $US117 a tonne it was this time last year and well off peaks above $US180 a tonne in 2011.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has said Treasury is contemplating a price as low as $35 per tonne in its estimates.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-15/iron-ore-price-collapse-blows-30b-dollar-hole-in-federal-budget/6393302

See toon at top..

It's one of the first rules of economics: make a product cheaper, and people will buy more. Things aren't playing out that way Down Under.

A 34 per cent fall in the value of the Aussie dollar to a six-year low of about US72¢ has done little to revive exports, which now cost less for international buyers. Australia posted its widest-ever trade deficit in April. Analysts predict four-fifths of the nation's biggest listed exporters will report shrinking revenues this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/the-economy/aussie-devaluation-fails-economics-101-as-export-income-slides-20150810-givlgy.html#ixzz3iOGQDyUG 
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Barnaby Joyce says the business case for big new coalmines “no longer stacks up” given the low price and slowing global demand for the fuel.

The agriculture minister’s comments were directed at the $1.2bn Shenhua Watermark coalmine planned for the fertile Liverpool Plains in his New South Wales electorate, but he conceded the financial argument applied in principle to all new coalmines.

Asked whether Shenhua made sense commercially, Joyce replied: “No. Why would you build it. The price of coal is $60 a tonne. It just doesn’t make sense ... The inherent business plan these coalmines used to be stacked up by is no longer there.

“... If that thing [Shenhua] goes ahead it is going to cost them $200m just to say they want to do it, to buy the [state government] licence, $800m to build it, $300m probably to put aside for rehabilitation works – that’s a $1.3bn punt on $60 a tonne spot price. They could go down to the Hunter Valley and buy [a coalmine] for $350m to do exactly the same job.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/12/barnaby-joyce-says-business-case-for-big-new-coalmines-no-longer-stacks-up

Read toon at top and see that "new" coal mining has not made any sense for a long time, except to fill the pockets of rich friends of the Liberal (CONservative) Party with public moneys.

Queensland’s resources industry has called on the state and federal governments for help to save thousands of jobs after a study showed that a third of the state’s coalmines are running at a loss.

The report, commissioned by the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), also found that more than half of the mines producing thermal coal for power stations were losing money.

“It’s really time for government to sit down with the industry and see what we can do to hang onto the jobs we’ve got,” the chief executive of QRC, Michael Roche, told ABC radio.

Roche said governments must consider what support could be given to the industry, such as tax relief. He said conditions were some of the worst faced in decades.

Roche said the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, had agreed to a meeting. “We are looking for a partnership to protect the maximum number of jobs in the resources sector,” he said.

The anti-mining lobby is likely to claim that the industry already receives large subsidies and that taxpayer money should not be handed over.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/08/queensland-mining-industry-asks-for-taxpayer-support-to-keep-coal-jobs

So that's why the biggest coal mine in the world has been approved by the Liberals (CONservatives) in the middle of Queensland. Not only the new mine is going to lower the price of coal, making exploitation of coal a loss making venture even further, it will destroy the environment beyond belief.

ARE ALL THE TURNBULL GOVERNMENT BOFFINS MAD?

Yes they are... Two years later, they still are stupid, greedy, idiotic, mental, deranged, deluded, brain-dead, sneaky, possibly on the take, devious, full of hubris (hubristictical?) etc ... See toon at top (note date of publication).

A confidential report obtained by the ABC says coal prices will fall significantly and exports from Australia's biggest coal port will decline if Adani's giant coal mine in north Queensland goes ahead.

• Report found mine could add about $40 million tonnes a year of capacity to the market
• Queensland believed to be offering Adani discount on mining royalties during initial phase
• That could amount to almost $1.2 billion in lost revenue

The research has come amid a major split in the Labor Party over plans to offer the giant Carmichael mine subsidies and a reduction in mining royalty payments.

And it has highlighted deep divisions behind the scenes in the coal industry over the federal and Queensland governments' support for subsidies for the giant mining project.

A key finding of the report was that if Adani's coal mine in north Queensland went ahead, it would add about $40 million tonnes a year of capacity to the market.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-09/adanis-carmichael-mine-will-cause-global-coal-price-drop-report/8505564

See toon at top... NOTE THIS WAS FOUR YEARS AGO... Opening new coal mines still does not make ANY economic sense...