Two Livingstone Shire councillors are racing to reverse their mayor’s cancellation of two electric vehicle chargers, as a deadline for $320,000 in funding looms next Friday.
The council made a surprise move on Thursday when mayor Adam Belot won a motion to halt a just-announced plan to install two chargers in Yeppoon, citing a now-debunked report by 7 News into Indonesian nickel mining that focused on its impact on EV batteries.
The motion passed 4-3, which pushed two of those in favour of having a local electric vehicle (EV) charger in the area to call for a speedy reversal.
Councillors Andrea Friend and Rhodes Watson are pushing for a special meeting on Thursday to overturn the motion, because the final date for deciding whether to use the $320,000 in state funding is the following day.
“If [that funding] falls over that means we are not going to have an electric vehicle charger anytime soon,” Friend told The Driven.
“We don’t have a spare $320,000 to install one.”
The council has been working for about eight years to secure funding and a charger company to install two chargers and has a potential partner, she says.
Just two and a half weeks ago the council said it would partner with a supplier to install the charger, with Belot and another councillor, who this week also voted against the plan, supporting the move.
The 7 News story which Belot cited in his motion to halt the program highlighted a badly polluting nickel factory in Indonesia, but then claimed the nickel from this site was used in EV batteries.
Those claims were roundly debunked by digital publication TechAU which found the nickel produced at that location wasn’t high quality enough to be used in batteries, and contacted a range of carmakers to uncover their supply chains – none said they used nickel from Indonesia.
Quixotic tilt at global EV industry
When asked how the manufacture of EV batteries are relevant to the council’s plan to install chargers to cater to local residents and tourists, Belot told The Driven a reasonable person might say they’re linked.
“Recently people reached out to me raising concerns about potential environmental and social rights,” Belot said.
In a statement following the decision, he said state and federal governments must scrutinise battery making practices to ensure the country isn’t investing or supporting unethical practices.
“This is not a decision made lightly, and it does not mean Livingstone is opposed to EV adoption,” he said in the statement.
“It simply means we are choosing to wait until we can be confident that any infrastructure introduced is both ethical and economically sound for our community.”
The next step for the mayor is to write to Queensland premier David Crisafulli for confirmation that, as the ultimate funder, it is happy for the shire to install chargers serving EVs that may use batteries of unknown provenance.
“We will be seeking direction as to how to advocate to improve electric vehicle industry integrity to ensure we can see the continuation of electric vehicles rolling out into regional Queensland as one of the elements, or mixes of vehicle types, that will be part of the future,” he told The Driven.
During the council meeting on Thursday, a council employee noted that the funding, from the Queensland government’s Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Co-fund Scheme, has already gone through state processes that include human rights and and sustainability issues.
She also promised that through the procurement process they will be able to make sure the charger companies follow the letter of Australian laws around human rights and environmental issues.
Community opposition – or support?
Belot says each time the council has raised the topic of EV chargers, a number of constituents will reach out with strong, negative opinions on the subject.
But where Belot says his job is to listen to the people’s preference, Friend says it’s not the council’s job to dictate what people can drive.
“It’s not about the mining in Indonesia or anywhere else in the world, it’s about supplying to our local residents, and also tourists, the availability to charge their electric vehicles. It’s not up to local government to dictate who should buy an electric vehicle,” she said.
“This whole issue is being brought up in relation to ethics. I watched that expose, and I was appalled at the conditions local indigenous communities in Indonesia are living in. However, from what I understand there’s been no evidence to say that nickel has ever been used in any electric vehicles batteries.
“The facts are the Capricorn coast desperately needs an electrical vehicle charger.
“We have no control over what the general public chooses to purchase when they purchase electric vehicles.”
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.