GetUp should get their facts straight on the reef Claims made by GetUp that the government has rushed the environmental assessment process for onshore land disposal at Abbot Point are completely false. A decision has not been made. The assessment and approvals process will be considered in time, according to federal processes and federal law. GetUp ignores the truth either due to their own ignorance or blatant desire to run a political campaign. Green groups claimed that a federal decision would be rushed before Christmas. This was always false and has now been proved to be false, deceptive and misleading. GetUp remained overwhelmingly silent as Labor advanced plans for dumping in the Marine Park as part of the Abbot Point project with 33 preliminary approvals. The proposal trumpeted and advanced by Labor was for twenty-times the amount of dredge material compared with what is now being considered for relocation on land. It is the Coalition that is ending the century-old practice of dumping in the Marine Park – a practice that was fully embraced by Labor Governments at Federal and State level. And we are enshrining this ban in law. We inherited five major proposals from Labor to dispose of dredge spoil in the Marine Park. We have reduced this to zero. Environmental groups called for onshore disposal at Abbot Point. Now the very thing they demanded is the very thing they oppose. For GetUp, it seems no proposal for sea dumping was too big when it was advanced under Labor. Yet now they oppose the very reforms the green groups called for. And of course, it seems an amazing coincidence that a legal case is launched just two days after the Queensland election is called. It is disappointing that GetUp continues to mislead the Australian public on matters regarding the Great Barrier Reef. They’re running a baseless scare campaign that is hurting the very local communities that love and protect our iconic reef. We are determined to protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef not just for the coming decades, but for coming centuries. GetUp should explain why they were overwhelmingly silent when Labor was proposing a project twenty-times what is now being sought. GetUp should explain why they were overwhelmingly silent when Labor was proposing sea disposal.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:17:27 +0000
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