The following is a tale of men who are living testament to the government slogan that “ïf you have a go, you’ll get a go”.
The first is John Maitland.
In 2008, former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald signed over a valuable coal licence to a company part-owned by former union boss and good friend, John Maitland.
As reported by Kate McClymont:
Ostensibly Doyles Creek had been granted as a “training mine” but once he had acquired the licence, Maitland’s company sold the rights over the coal deposits for a huge profit and the former union boss instantly became a multimillionaire.
Enter the next character in our tale, mining magnate Brian Flannery, who had written a letter to Macdonald to say what a valuable resource Mailtand’s “training mine” would be – a letter for which Maitland had provided the template and which ICAC Commissioner David Ipp concluded was used by Macdonald to give an air of legitimacy to what was a dubious decision.
A few months later, Mr Flannery had an extraordinary stroke of luck.
Kate McClymont again:
In August 2008, Mr Flannery and Mr Duncan’s company Felix Resources had lost the right to mine at Moolarben, near Mudgee, after mining giant Xstrata won a case before the NSW Court of Appeal. The appeal court ruled that the Mining Act prevented the granting of mining leases to Felix on land owned by Xstrata. But a fortnight later Macdonald introduced amendments to the Mining Act which effectively overturned the court’s decision. “The amendment will provide certainty for mineral exploration and mining in this state,” Macdonald told Parliament.
The following year Mr Flannery and Mr Duncan debuted on the BRW Rich List having each pocketed $530 million from the $3.5 billion sale of their company Felix to Chinese miner Yanzhou Coal.
And in August 2010, at Macdonald’s instigation, 70 hectares of government land at Cessnock was sold to White Energy, a company with which both men were associated, for the sum of just $1.
Mr Flannery and Mr Duncan later featured in another corruption inquiry – this time having to explain how it was that Cascade Coal, a privately owned mining company in which they had invested, came to be granted the Mount Penny coal exploration licence that lay right over the top of a farm which just happened to be owned by the family of disgraced former powerbroker Eddie Obeid.
There has been no finding of any wrongdoing by Mr Flannery and the case involving Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald is currently before the courts where they are pleading not guilty.
Moving on to 2015 when Brian Flannery and, our next character, Liberal donor Trevor St Baker, bought the Vales Point Power Station from the NSW Liberal government for $1 million, a decision approved by then treasurer, Gladys Berejiklian. Two years later, after posting a $113 million profit, it was valued at $730 million.
When, in March last year, the government revealed its shortlist of 12 projects that could receive government funding through the Underwriting New Generation Investment program, it included a turbine upgrade for the Vales Point coal-fired power plant to improve its efficiency.
One would have thought with the profit they have made, they might have been able to fund their own upgrade but Mr St Baker is never backward in coming forward to benefit from government decisions.
When the federal government announced a $1 billion grid integration fund in October last year, it was to be for storage and network options to help with the integration of renewable energy into the system. The next day, St Baker’s Delta Energy put its hand up for a pair of batteries that it says will reduce wear and tear on the ageing coal plant.
Then on Friday, it was revealed that, as part of the $2 billion deal that Scott Morrison signed with Gladys Berejiklian to increase gas supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector, the Vales Point coal-fired power plant will very likely get an $11m grant – $9.84m to upgrade turbines and another $1.2m grant to fund high pressure heaters. That’s grant, not loan.
This plant is due to close in 2029. In another stellar decision by Gladys, the sale contract limits the owner’s liability to decommission the plant and rehabilitate the site to $10 million with the state to pick up the tab for further costs. Costs for rehabilitation of the similarly sized Hazelwood power station exceeded $300 million. Rehabilitation of the Liddell power station is expected to be even higher, with Delta Electricity advising it expects costs to exceed $500 million.
Our characters all made a great deal of money from government decisions. But still, they want more.
‘If you have a go, you’ll get a go’ could be interpreted as ‘Privatise the profits and socialise the costs’ – or how to become a millionaire with the stroke of a pen.
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