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Hardened supporters of Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine say they are growing frustrated with the Indian company, and questioning whether the project can get off the ground.
Jim Pearce, a former Labor MP for the north Queensland seat of Mirani, said he was disappointed Adani missed its own deadline of finalising finance for the $16 billion mine and rail project by the end of this month.
"They're just not delivering," he said.
"They were putting people like myself out there in the middle of the road, only to get run over.
"I have a lot of respect for the people I've dealt with in Adani, but there's something wrong here."
Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson agreed there was frustration among Adani supporters.
"They're saying they can finance it. We have to believe them, but for goodness sake, get it going," he said.
"The longer it goes on, the more the doubting community have ammunition to attack."
Adani announced it had the green light for the project last June.
But plans for an October ground-breaking ceremony at the proposed mine site were postponed due to wet weather, and no new date has been set.
Adani was also hit with a setback the following month, when the Queensland Labor Government announced it would veto any moves to grant the company a possible $1 billion loan through the Commonwealth's Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
An Adani spokeswoman said the company remained "100 per cent committed to the Carmichael Project and is confident of securing finance".
The Indian company has secured all of its mining and environmental approvals, but still faces a legal challenge to its Indigenous land use agreement with traditional owners.
Because of this, supporters like former ALP candidate and Whitsunday regional councillor Mike Brunker are giving Adani the benefit of the doubt until the last hurdle is cleared.
"I don't know what their finances are, but there's no excuses once you get all of that complete package," he said.
Cr Brunker is critical of federal Labor leader Bill Shorten for appearing to walk away from bipartisan support for the Adani project, while campaigning in the Batman by-election in Melbourne.
"I get straw polls every day in my business where people just come in and hammer me because they know I'm a Labor guy," he said.
The head of the Queensland mining division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Steve Smyth, agreed the local reaction to the federal Opposition Leader's stance was "absolutely terrible".
"It's a numbers game," he said.
"Labor needs to win three important seats in Queensland, and three of those seats either sit in or around mining."
"Adani shouldn't be used for political purposes for an election that's 2,000 kilometres away."
Topics: mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, industry, business-economics-and-finance, environment, federal---state-issues, parliament, state-parliament, government-and-politics, political-parties, alp, unions, bill-shorten, mackay-4740, qld, rockhampton-4700, brisbane-4000, townsville-4810
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