Premier cops conservationists’ flak Mine backflip after election
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk’s spectacular postelection backflip on the highly controversial Adani mine was music to the ears of regional voters, but left a bitter taste in the mouths of disillusioned conservationists.
It is almost nine months since federal Labor’s election loss led to a swift about-turn in the Premier’s stance on the Carmichael mine amid criticism its handling of the issue had cost Labor votes.
Ms Palaszczuk abandoned her lukewarm position on the coalmine days after the federal election delivered swings to the LNP in the regions, with some Labor MPS blaming her administration’s political indecision over the $2 billion Galilee Basin project.
Following the
Palaszczuk flew defeat, Ms to central
Queensland to declare she was “fed up” with her government’s delays on approvals.
Within days, the state had signed off on Adani’s plans to move the endangered blackthroated finch at the mine site to another parcel of land, angering activists.
Griffith University senior political lecturer Paul Williams said the Adani coalmine became a “totem” for a wider message painted by the Coalition that Labor was antimining, anti-blue collar regions. Mackay Conservation Group organiser Michael Kane yesterday said the “knee jerk reaction” to put such a tight deadline on the approvals was “a political decision and not a decision that was based on merits”.
Since the backflip, climate change activism has shifted into top gear. The Government moved to introduce tough new laws targeted at activists. Ms Palaszczuk’s government is also facing its first test on its ability to deliver on plans to help save the Great Barrier Reef by curbing deforestation later this year.
That is when the first data will be released showing how dramatically new laws tightening tree clearing has curbed deforestation following a massive spike under the Liberal National Party.
One of the most pivotal environmental changes since Palaszczuk’s election five years ago, 2018 laws have been met with both relief and concern they may not be aggressive enough.
Adding to the issue, bushfires have ravaged thousands of hectares and fears for the koala hit a crescendo after the Australia Koala Foundation’s Deborah Tabart declared they were “functionally extinct.”