'Clean' coal power plants: Matt Canavan hints at government subsidy

Minister says he's not surprised that generators don't want another big baseload power station to enter the market

Australia's resources minister, Matt Canavan, has flagged subsidising a "clean" coal baseload power plant from the government's $5bn northern Australia infrastructure fund, and says the government has already heard from an interested party.

Canavan on Friday suggested a potential investor in a new power station was eyeing off development in the Galilee Basin, the planned site of the Adani coal mine - and he said cheap power had been the key to opening up the Bowen basin in Queensland in the 1960s.