Pressure mounts the WA government over bailout of embattled coal mine

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The State Government is facing fresh questions over its bailout of an embattled coal mine critical to WA's energy system. Amid revelations taxpayer money is leaking offshore. Griffin Coal has been in receivership since 2022, when it collapsed under the weight of mounting losses and more than a billion dollars of debt. It can now be revealed that taxpayer funds designed to keep the mine afloat are being used, in part, to repay its foreign owners.

Transcript

00:00Of all the problems looming over WA's energy landscape, few cast a longer shadow

00:07than Griffin Coal.

00:08The historic company is one of only two coal mines in Western Australia, where it supplies

00:13fuel for some of the state's most important industrial players.

00:16Union official and former coal miner Greg Busson knows Griffin's importance well.

00:20It's a consistent source of power and if we had to drop that out of the system I don't

00:26know where it would be currently.

00:27But times are tough at Griffin, which has been on life support since its lenders tipped

00:31the miner into receivership three years ago.

00:34Providing the lifeline to the company is the WA government, which agreed to keep Griffin

00:38going until June 2026.

00:40More than $300 million of taxpayers' money will be spent subsidising Griffin's production.

00:46The state has previously said the cash would not be used to repay Griffin's lenders, but

00:51answers to questions in state parliament tell a different story, with the government acknowledging

00:55it had spent almost $15 million paying secured creditors.

00:59The secured creditors of Griffin are going to receive about $30 million out of the $308

01:05million that taxpayers are pouring into the black hole that is Griffin Coal.

01:10Griffin is still one of WA's most critical energy assets, supplying the coal it's used to produce

01:16about 15 per cent of the power in the state's main grid.

01:20Its intractable problems put the state in a bind, struggling to live with the miner and

01:24its lenders and seemingly unable to live without them.

01:28It is the price of keeping lights on and making sure that we've got consistent, good quality

01:32and you know it's fit for purpose power, currently baseload power.

01:36The state opposition says the government needs to come clean.

01:39When Griffin Coal continues to lose $7 million a month and it is propped up by the taxpayer,

01:45I don't think the investors should be receiving a dividend, but they are.

01:49The government declined to answer questions about the debt repayments, but insisted it is

01:53the receiver and not the state that is responsible for distributing payments between creditors.

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