Abstract:
As far as political issues go, the debate over Queensland’s Wild Rivers Act 2005 had it all. On the one hand, so the line went, was an environmental lobby intent on preserving the rivers of Queensland as ‘wilderness’. On the other were Indigenous people prevented from undertaking economic development because of the Act’s restrictions. Also in the mix were mining interests, ‘The Australian’, the long-running issues with the Native Title Act, a federal-state power struggle and a good dose of political opportunism. Three bills introduced into the federal parliament by Tony Abbott, three parliamentary inquiries, and many column inches later, the issue is still unresolved. Abbott has continued to promise the overturning of the legislation should the Coalition win the next election. Meanwhile, the current Queensland opposition leader, Campbell Newman, has said the Liberal-National Coalition will ‘change’ the law if elected to government, although it was originally enacted with bipartisan support.
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