We were right to support wild rivers
Today’s article in the Courier-Mail (see above) demonstrates the wisdom in the Greens’ support for the Wild Rivers legislation in the recent state election. In fact, we wanted the concept extended to include such east coast waterways as the upper Noosa River and Baffle Creek.
Now, it is obvious where the opposition to Wild Rivers is coming from - Rio Tinto and its supporters who want to extract massive amounts of water from the Wenlock River on Cape York as part of their bauxite strip mining plans for the area.
The Wild Rivers Act allows for sustainable economic activity in catchments like the Wenlock for Aboriginal communities but not strip mining and not more than 1 per cent extraction of the flows.
The Wild Rivers Act is no threat to Indigenous communities or for sustainable economic activity on Cape York. It is a threat to corporations like Rio Tinto.
