CU-River Mining Australia

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:58): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer, as Leader of the Government, and the Premier about a company called CU-River Mining Pty Limited, which is in the process of purchasing the Flinders power site near Port Augusta.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: This week, I received a letter, along with company searches from ASIC, relating to CU-River Mining and an associated Chinese-owned company, Jiujiang Mining Australia (JMA), from my eagle-eyed federal Centre Alliance colleague Senator Rex Patrick, which was also sent to the Premier and the Hon. Rob Lucas. I acknowledge Senator Patrick's presence here today. I seek leave to table those documents.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: CU-River Mining is seeking to acquire the Port Augusta power station site from Flinders Power Partnership with the intention of establishing a bulk commodity and port facility. In his letter, Senator Patrick expresses his strong support for the project but raises a number of serious concerns including: the fact the remediation of the ash dam is not to world's best standards; the relatively infant status of CU-River Mining; the lack of public information and financial capacity of this single-shareholder company, noting that it will take on all environmental liabilities for the site; that CU-River Mining's revenue stream appears to be dependent on its Chinese-owned sister company JMA, which reports will underwrite the Port Augusta project to the tune of $800 million as part of an offtake agreement; that one of the directors of JMA happens to be Labor Party identity and lobbyist, former senator Nick Bolkus; and that JMA's iron ore mine is located in the Woomera Prohibited Area, which may give rise to some national security concerns and may impact the company's ability to continue to operate there, possibly subject to a federal government review.

Senator Patrick cautions the government on the potential risk to taxpayers of South Australia should there be questions over the long-term viability of the company and the proposed port, particularly with any environmental liability associated with the ash dams. My questions to the Treasurer and Premier are:

1. Has the South Australian government done proper due diligence with respect to the company CU-River Mining and its associated company JMA?

2. What financial guarantees are in place to ensure that South Australian taxpayers are not left to carry the liabilities should CU-River Mining run into trouble?

3. Are bank guarantees being set up?

4. Has CU-River Mining and its contracting partner JMA given assurances that workers at the mine or the port will be Australian unless job market testing shows that no Australians are available to do those jobs?

5. Do the Premier and Treasurer share Senator Patrick's concerns, raised in Senator Patrick's letter?

6. What role, if any, did ex-senator Nick Bolkus play in the lobbying or advocating for this project?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:02): I am happy to take the honourable member's considerable number of questions on notice and bring back a reply.