The Queensland opposition leader cannot say how her party would stop dredge spoil being dumped in the Great Barrier Reef marine park or environmentally sensitive wetlands as part of the Abbot Point port expansion.
Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government would “look at” the approvals already issued to dump the dredge spoil but could not say if or how the approvals would be overturned.
North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation has approval to dump 3m cubic metres of dredge spoil into the Great Barrier Reef marine park, although, after a public outcry, a plan to dump the spoil into the Caley valley wetlands was drawn up.
Palaszczuk was unable to outline an alternative plan when asked where the spoil would go under a Labor government. “We are going to have to look at that, we are going to have to go through line by line, item by item and just make sure we get legal advice in relation to that,” she said.
The Queensland LNP government has fast-tracked plans to dump the spoil in the wetlands to open the coal reserves in the Galiliee basin as quickly as possible.
“My understanding is that it actually goes into building the port infrastructure,” Palaszczuk said when asked what Labor would do with the spoil.
“I am happy to sit down with the companies and work that out. It will not go into the Caley valley wetlands.”
The publicly funded expansion of Abbot Point, near Bowen, is happening at the behest of the Indian mining company Adani, which wants to use the proposed extra capacity to ship coal from its planned Carmichael mine in the Galilee basin. The Carmichael project is facing a battle in the federal court aimed at overturning approval of the mine.
The government has said it would recoup the funding but is yet to put forward a timeline for doing so.
Palaszczuk criticised the premier, Campbell Newman, for using taxpayer money for the port expansion.
“What I am concerned about here is Campbell Newman picking winners and losers,” she said. “I am all for jobs in the Galilee basin, but it must stack up commercially. What we are seeing at the moment is Campbell Newman throwing a bucket of taxpayers’ cash – and we don’t know how much that is, is it $400m or $500m – at one particular company, when I know there are other companies out there who also have vested interests.
“So the government, is doing the wrong thing by taxpayers by picking a winner and picking losers. It needs to stack up financially, it needs to be commercially viable and the market should decide that, not Campbell Newman,” she said.
Speaking on day 15 of the Queensland election campaign, Palaszczuk also left the door open to legalising medicinal marijuana if Labor won office.
“I understand there’s a trial happening at the moment in New South Wales, I think we should look at how that trial eventuates and I’m happy to give that due consideration once we see the outcomes of that trial,” she said in the Brisbane electorate of Ferny Grove.
Asked specifically if she would sign Queensland up to a trial she responded: “It’s in the process at the moment so let’s see the outcomes of that trial. My focus here is seeing the outcome of the NSW trial first.”
