In a reprieve for the environment, the climate and the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland Government has decided that the massive coal export facility expansion, planned to make Abbot Point the largest coal port in the world, is deeply flawed and unviable.
The six extra terminals for the Abbot Point facility will now be slashed, but there remains the possibility of a multitude of smaller coal and gas ports proceeding instead, thereby avoiding scrutiny from cumulative impacts and possibly triggering fewer environmental laws.
“The Abbot Point decision is a stay of execution for the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef, at a time when the mass public outcry has shown all these planned port expansions to be deeply unpopular, ” Australian Greens environment spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said.
“The Queensland and Australian Governments should use this opportunity to ditch their ‘coal at all costs’ strategy to sacrifice the Reef, and stop the mass dredging and off-shore dumping of millions of cubic metres in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, ” she concluded.
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Dredging Today Staff, May 22, 2012,