Decisions on dumping dredgings on Great Barrier Reef on hold

DECISIONS on dumping dredge material near Great Barrier Reef waters were on hold pending talks with the new Queensland government.

DECISIONS on dumping dredge material near Great Barrier Reef waters were on hold pending talks with the new Queensland government, federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said yesterday.

Mr Hunt said Queensland must decide if it wanted to continue with a plan for onshore dumping near wetlands to expand the Abbot Point coal terminal.

The state was also responsible for extending a ban on offshore dumping announced by Mr Hunt to include all World Heritage listed waters, not just the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park boundaries that fell under federal control.

Releasing the state party report on the Great Barrier Reef to the World Heritage Committee yesterday, Mr Hunt said he would “work with the Queensland government to ensure strong bipartisan support for the reef continues’’.

It was “unthinkable” that any Queensland government would work to have the reef delisted or placed on the in-danger list by UNESCO.

The dramatic losses suffered by the Newman government has sharpened politics surrounding management of the Great Barrier Reef, which is under threat of being placed “in danger” by the WHC this year.

Mr Hunt said the state party report “clearly demonstrates that the Great Barrier Reef does not warrant being listed in danger”.

“We know the reef is facing challenges but we are making significant progress,” he said.

“There is strong evidence our efforts are working.”

Conservation groups believe concerns about the reef played a role in boosting support for the Greens, which in turn helped Labor in the state election.

This was despite efforts by Mr Hunt and the Newman government to blame reef mismanagement on the Labor governments of Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh.

Mr Hunt said it was under Labor in 2011 that the WHC first raised alarm bells about the health of the reef. When he became Environment Minister there were five proposals to dispose of dredge spoil in the marine park. “We have reduced this to zero and are now taking the next step to enshrine a ban in law,” Mr Hunt said.

A state Labor government is expected to impose tougher controls on dredging and dumping near reef waters.

It will be under pressure to backtrack on approvals to expand Abbot Point at least until final funding had been secured for Adani’s Galilee Basin coal project on which the port expansion is based.

The Greens and WWF were quick yesterday to criticise the federal government’s state party report to the WHC.

Greens Queensland senator Larissa Waters said the report did not address all of the concerns of the WHC.

“The report refers to Minister Hunt’s so-called restriction on reef dumping, which is so full of loopholes that it’s basically business as usual,” she said.

WWF said the report was “inaccurate and fails to acknowledge serious declines in the reef’s health”.

“The state party report claims that Australian and Queensland government policies on the Great Barrier Reef are sufficient to avoid an ‘in-danger’ listing by the World Heritage Committee but this claim is undermined by the clear picture provided by the science,” WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman said.