Green groups have won more time for a court challenge to plans to dump dredge spoil from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park on land.
The federal government last year approved a plan to have three million cubic metres of spoil dumped in the marine park boundaries in north Queensland, but following a public backlash the Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, this month announced that his cabinet was instead backing a plan to have the material disposed of on land.
Conservationists, however, remain opposed to any dredging which would enable the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal, near Bowen.
They argue that dumping the spoil onshore would also damage a wetland which is home to threatened species.
Green groups have won more time for a court challenge to plans to dump dredge spoil from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park on land. The federal government last year approved a plan to have three million cubic metres of spoil dumped in the marine park boundaries in north Queensland, but following a public backlash the Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, this month announced that his cabinet was instead backing a plan to have the material disposed of on land.
