Palmer outburst may jeopardise his LNP membership

Billionaire miner Clive Palmer has gone to war with Queensland's conservative government by calling for the heads of the state treasurer and deputy premier in an outburst that will jeopardise his life membership of the Liberal National Party.

Yesterday he blew up his truce with Campbell Newman’s government, enforced after his criticism of public servant sackings, with an attack on Treasurer Tim Nicholls and Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney, with allegations of conflicts of interest, intimidation and misleading parliament.

Whitehaven secures $1.2B loan facility

Whitehaven Coal has secured a $1.2 billion bank debt facility that will allow it to retire its older facilities and fund the development of its Maules Creek project, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The secured facility, underwritten by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, has a four-year tenure and includes revolving, term and guarantee facilities. It will replace a $450 million facility due to mature in December, of which $225 million has been drawn, along with an undrawn $350 million facility.

Whitehaven, advised by independent investment and advisory group Grant Samuel, decided on the bank facility after considering the option of tapping the US high-yield market, a path recently taken by Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Iron.

A call on our nuclear path looms

Australia may have to decide whether to proceed with nuclear power by the end of the decade if global and national progress on renewable energy technologies fails to develop at the expected pace, according to The Australian.

The federal government’s energy white paper released yesterday said the Australian government did not support the adoption of nuclear power. However, it said nuclear power may be considered if new low-emissions baseload energy technology could not be commercialised in time to meet emissions reduction targets.