Adani denies it has abandoned plans to seek a taxpayer-funded loan for a rail link associated with its Queensland coal mine, piling political pressure on the LNP.
An ABC report has cited an unnamed Adani Mining director as saying the company is close to securing a deal with Chinese enterprises and export credit agencies to fund both the mine and the rail link.
The director reportedly said Adani now wouldn't need a loan of up to $1 billion from the federal Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) for the rail line.
But Adani spokesman Ron Watson says the report is wrong.
"Adani has held productive meetings with a wide range of financiers for the Carmichael mine and associated infrastructure," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
"However, this does not negate the need for support from the federal and state governments including a NAIF loan, every cent of which will be repaid by Adani with interest."
The NAIF loan has been a dominant issue in the Queensland election campaign.
Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has vowed to exercise Queensland's power to veto it, saying Adani's project must stack up without taxpayer support.
But LNP leader Tim Nicholls supports the loan - and that's a deal breaker for One Nation should the right-wing party end up with the balance of power after Saturday's election.
One Nation leader Steve Dickson has warned his party will not support a minority LNP government unless it also promises to veto the loan.
"We want that money spent for the sake of Queenslanders and Australians alone and nobody else, ever," he told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the premier downplayed the ABC report, which said Chinese interests invariably required materials for key infrastructure to be sourced from China and that would effectively shift work from the Adani project out of Australia.
Ms Palaszczuk said Adani had already promised to procure what it needs locally and not to bring in any 457 visa workers.
"They've already been making commitments to purchasing things like supplies and services in Townsville and in Maryborough," she told reporters.
Mr Nicholls also had his share of Adani-related pain on Wednesday when his address at a leaders debate in Townsville was interrupted by protesters.
They had been hiding for hours underneath an audio and sound podium reserved for the media.
"There are no jobs," one of the protesters shouted.
"There are 70,000 jobs in the reef. How do you fix that?"
The protesters were swiftly ushered out and Mr Nicholls later said they were entitled to their views, but they should learn some manners.
"I just think they were bloody rude, to be frank," he said.
