Australia's Environment Minister Suspends Plan To Dredge 3 Million M3 Of GB Reef To Export Coal
Jobs!!
Earlier on Friday the Queensland government approved the mining magnate Clive Palmer's $6.4bn coalmine and rail project, which would link to the Abbot Point terminal. The Alpha project, in the Galilee basin area of Queensland, will involve the clearing of thousands of hectares of vegetation that is the habitat of the endangered black-throated finch and more than 220 different types of plants.
Palmer said the project, which still needs federal government approval, would create 6,000 jobs during construction and nearly 2,500 during its operation.
The Greens senator Larissa Waters said Butler needed to reject, rather than defer, dredging at Abbot Point. "No amount of extra information will change the fact that this plan would see 3m cubic metres of dredge spoil dumped in a World Heritage area," she said.
"We don't need to dredge and dump in the Great Barrier Reef to expand a coalport which will turn the reef into a shipping super highway, at the end of the fossil fuel era – we have renewable alternatives."
EDIT
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/09/reef-dredging-decision-delayed