Queensland government deal with miners Adani and GVK requires seabed to be dumped onshore next to port instead of in sensitive wetlands or reef waters

Dredging in Great Barrier Reef allowed but not with taxpayer money, says Labor

The Labor government in Queensland will allow mining companies Adani and GVK to dredge in Great Barrier Reef waters to expand a coal port but will make them pay for it themselves.

The government’s deal with the miners on Abbot Point comes despite previous concerns from the UN – which will decide whether to list the reef “in danger” this year – about the impact of the project’s dredging and increased shipping.



It also follows estimates that the Galilee Basin mines feeding the port would produce enough coal to far outstrip Australia’s annual carbon emissions, indicating a climate change contribution of global significance.



Great Barrier Reef in dire straits without extra $500m and ban on dumping Read more

Labor’s new plan removes millions of dollars in taxpayer support for dredging at Abbot Point, while requiring that seabed to be dumped onshore next to the port instead of in sensitive wetlands or in reef waters.



The premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the deal demonstrated her support for “responsible and sustainable development” of the port and the Galilee Basin, inland from Bowen in north Queensland.



However, Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters said the climate impacts of opening up the Galilee meant “effectively signing a death warrant for the Great Barrier Reef”.



“A lot of Queenslanders [in the recent state election] voted to protect the reef and they’re going to be really disappointed that Labor is now facilitating not just dredging and increased shipping through the reef but also massive climate impacts when we know, because scientists tell us, that climate change is the biggest threat to the reef,” she said.



The plan to dump dredge spoil at a vacant industrial site next to Abbot Point represents the third attempt to find a place for the potentially toxic seabed. The former LNP government proposed a site in the sensitive Caley Valley wetlands in response to public outcry at a federally approved plan to dump the spoil in reef waters.



The former Liberal National party government was prepared to pay for the dredging itself upfront. Its promise to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a railway to help the miners open up the Galilee coalfields has also been scrapped by the Palaszczuk government.

Adani holds a long-term lease at Abbott Point and wants to expand to accommodate thermal exports to India from its proposed Carmichael mine in the Galilee, which would be Australia’s largest.



World Wildlife Fund Australia welcomed the end to offshore dumping but questioned the need to expand the port during a coal industry downturn.



WWF reef campaigner Louise Matthieson said the dredging itself would have “serious impacts, like destroying seagrass beds, regardless of where the spoil is dumped”.



“WWF has repeatedly called for a longer jetty at Abbot Point to avoid the majority of dredging,” Matthieson said. “Better utilisation of existing ports could deliver the same economic benefits without unnecessarily damaging the reef.”

Greenpeace campaigner Shani Tager said the new plan to dredge 1m tonnes of seabed, for a port that risked becoming redundant if countries retreated from the coal sector, remained unacceptable.

“Premier Palaszczuk’s plans will pave the way for construction of up to nine new coalmines, accelerating climate change and ocean acidification – processes that will turn the Great Barrier Reef into a coral graveyard,” she said.

The announcement of the deal on Wednesday by Palaszczuk and the minister for natural resources, mines and state development, Anthony Lynham, comes even before the first parliament of the new government has sat.



Palaszczuk said she would “like to thank Adani and GVK for working with us to come up with a sustainable plan that helps us protect the reef, protect the wetlands and create jobs”.



“Today my government sends a clear message: we can protect the Great Barrier Reef, and we can foster economic development and create jobs,” she said.



“I am determined to deliver on my election commitments, and that includes no dumping of capital dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef world heritage area, no dumping of dredge material in the nationally significant Caley Valley wetlands, and no taxpayer funding for capital dredging and the disposal of dredge spoil.”



Lynham said while the government would ensure costs of approval and dredging would be paid for by the mining companies, the port development was “vital to Queensland’s economic future”.



“That’s why we are prioritising this project and are dedicated to ensuring it progresses in a transparent and environmentally responsible manner,” he said.



Waters said the Queensland government using these kind of descriptions for helping to open up one of the world’s largest coal basins beggared belief.



“In this age, when the biggest threat to the reef, and the planet for that matter, is climate change, you can’t call the expansion of a coal port environmentally sustainable,” she said. “Likewise, you can’t protect the Great Barrier Reef if you’re opening up the Galilee Basin and expanding the Abbot Point coal terminal to send more coal ships out, with all the dredging and all that climate impact.”

Waters said while Unesco’s world heritage committee would welcome the end to offshore dredge dumping, it would “not be impressed” with the fact Abbot Point itself would proceed.



She said the end to offshore dumping was “like changing a bandaid but ignoring the fact you’ve got cancer”. If the Galilee were a nation, it would be the world’s seventh largest greenhouse gas emitter once its coal was burned, Waters said.

Adani says its coal projects will deliver 10,000 jobs and $22bn in taxes and royalties.

Its chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj said the government’s announcement “demonstrates the priority the government has placed from the outset on ensuring economic development proceeds in Queensland subject to robust environmental standards”.



The Queensland government will submit a new application to the federal environment minister Greg Hunt for the dredging proposal, centred on the “T2” site, previously abandoned by BHP.

