George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In November 2011, a collection of extreme Green groups, many of which are subsidised by the Australian taxpayer, produced a report called 'Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom'. In that manifesto, there is a litany of lies—deception, hijacking and environmental terrorism, or at least a plan for it, perpetrated by the Green lunatic fringe—in an attempt to stop the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal. On one hand, the extreme Greens talk about 10,000 ships a year based on every possible mining project going ahead, even the ones which have been ditched; on the other hand, they argue that expansion of the current Abbot Point coal terminal should be stopped because there is insufficient demand and the port is operating below capacity. Which is it? Are there too many ships or not enough? You cannot have it both ways? Are they worried about too many ships or about too many people being gainfully employed?

The extreme Greens have hijacked the Great Barrier Reef, telling the world about Australia apparently dumping toxic dredge onto the reef. The stuff is not toxic and it is not being dumped onto the reef. The last thing the Greens care about is the truth. Equally outrageous is their demand that Abbot Point not go ahead because a Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority report said that dredged spoil travelled further and had more impact than previously thought, but now the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has released an interpretive statement to accompany the report which says that the risk assessments in the study were for comparative purposes only and could not be used to assess the impact of a particular project. That interpretive statement says:

It goes on to say:

So if the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority can tell the truth and stick with good science, as it should, why cannot the Greens? I can only imagine what would happen if private enterprise employed such a tactic as do the Greens. If the CEO of a company were to publish such blatant misinformation about the operations of another organisation, I dare say they would be hauled before the courts and quite possibly find some sort of sentence passed on them. This is yet another Green lie fabricated to destroy the Abbot Point project as a means to achieve their own socialist agenda. I say to the Greens, 'Stop the lies. Get out of the way of decent people who are trying to earn an honest living. Let Abbot Point go ahead for the sake of all of North Queensland.'