<
https://thedriven.io/2025/04/17/queensland-council-races-to-reverse-mayors-ev-charger-halt-with-funding-on-the-line/>
"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."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
