Enough is enough: Adani launches civil action against persistent critic
Coal miner Adani has launched legal proceedings against a persistent protester for harassing and intimidating workers involved with its major mine project in central Queensland.
The Indian-owned firm claims Galilee Blockade activist Ben Pennings has led a decade-long campaign against Adaniās business, employees, contractors and potential business partners over its 10 million-tonne-a-year Galilee Basin project.
The company filed a civil damages case against him in Queenslandās Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking to limit his ability to prevent Adani from ālegally and legitimately pursuing our commercial interestsā.
āAfter almost a decade of this type of intimidation we are saying enough is enough and we are exercising our legal rights to put an end to this obsessive and, in some cases, dangerous behaviour,ā the company said in a statement.
āThis is not about inflicting hardship on Mr Pennings, rather we are protecting our rights to carry out our business and give regional Queenslanders a fair go in terms of jobs and contracting opportunities.ā
Adani claims the activist caused distress to workers by entering the companyās offices and used intimidation to try to force meetings with executives.
You might like
-AAP
The firm also alleges he used photos of its workers and contractors on social media to try to ābelittle or intimidate themā.
Pennings called it an āattack dogā legal strategy on Twitter, adding he was confident he would get excellent pro bono advice.
The company is building its $2 billion thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, which could be expanded to six times that size.
Adani is also building a rail line with an initial 40 million tonne-a-year capacity that would be open to other companies if it gets the tick of approval to mine the coal-rich region.
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.
