The unrestrained go-ahead for a rash of big developments shows how timid and hopeless both the Coalition and Labor are on the environment, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
 
"Within the last fortnight, the national Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull has ticked off Gunns' pulp mill, and both the Gorgon and Woodside's Pluto onshore gasworks in Western Australia, though all three have massive impacts on the environment and wildlife, and all three have alternatives to avert these impacts.
 
 
Now Labor's new Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is rushing through legislation to enable the Xstrata coal mine because the Queensland Conservation Council has taken a legal challenge to its massive greenhouse gas release and wants some carbon offsetting.
 
"Like Gunns' pulp mill, this mine will be a huge new greenhouse gas emitter.  But no doubt Kevin Rudd will join John Howard in agreeing to this spiral of environmental irresponsibility," Senator Brown said.
 
The Coalition and Labor will both claim to be responsibly tackling climate change, and protection of Australian wildlife in this election.  Both are, in fact, captured by the mining and logging industries and failing to meet the need for 'polluters-pay' policy essential for tackling global warming, let alone responsibly protecting the nation's biodiversity and cultural heritage," Senator Brown said.
 
 
 
Further information:        Emma Belfield  0400 181 748