Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Bimblebox Nature Refuge is an 8,000-hectare privately owned wilderness—the last remaining wilderness in the Galilee Basin. It has exceptional environmental values and is home to many threatened species. In August 2000 the federal government used over $300,000 of taxpayers' money to partly fund its purchase and inclusion in the National Research System. That inclusion gives it no protection from mining. Under Labor state government laws it can also be mined. Clive Palmer wants to mine it. His aptly named 'China First' mine would turn half of Bimblebox into an open-cut coalmine and the other half into an underground coalmine to export 40 million tonnes of coal to China. Does the federal government still agree that Bimblebox is an area of high conservation value?