Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House that the Queensland government is not complying with its own environmental policies to prevent serious environmental harm and damage, which affects future generations. 

The Mineral Resources Act and the government’s mined land rehabilitation policies regulate land disturbed by mining activities to ensure it is rehabilitated to a safe, stable landform, does not cause environmental harm and sustains approved post-mining land use. The Environment Protection Act 1994 s126D (3) provides that if land contains a void, situated wholly or partly in a flood plain, the schedule must provide for rehabilitation of the land to a stable condition free from environmental harm. Despite these policies and laws designed to ensure mined land is restored to pre-mining condition and cannot cause environmental harm, the State Government has issued permits to waste companies enabling them to dump toxic waste under the Ground Water Table, polluting the land, ground water, surface waters and surrounding waterways. 

Ipswich is situated on the Clarence-Moreton Basin, the only sub-basin of the Great Artesian Basin which these gatekeeper regulations were there to protect.

Your petitioners, therefore, call on the House to withdraw all permits for sites where waste is under the ground water table, fully excavate all waste out of the affected voids and reinstate all affected voids only with “Clean Earthen Fill” as per the requirements in the acts.