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A protest against “extreme green attacks” on contentious plans to expand a coal port in Queensland has won support from a Coalition MP and the port’s developer.
A rally will be held in Bowen next week in support of the expansion of the Abbot Point terminal, which has received government approval but is staunchly opposed by green groups.
John Smith, the rally’s organiser, said: “If we don’t have this expansion, I really don’t see most of north Queensland surviving.” Smith said he hoped to get more than 700 people to the protest.
George Christensen, the federal Coalition MP for Dawson, has encouraged people to attend the rally. North Queensland Bulk Ports, the developer of the Abbot Point project, said it would send a representative, while Andrew Willcox, deputy mayor of the Whitsunday regional council, will also attend.
The Abbot Point development will involve 5m tonnes of seabed sediment being dug up to allow ships to access the port. The vessels will be loaded with coal extracted from huge new mines in central Queensland and taken overseas, via the Great Barrier Reef.
The federal government has approved the disposal of the dredged sediment within the reef’s marine park, sparking vocal opposition from environmental groups. Unesco, which has warned it may list the reef as “in danger” next year, has also voiced concern about the plan.
It has emerged that scientists at the Great Barrier Reef marine park authority advised against dumping the material within the marine park, only to be overruled. Studies have found that dumped sediment can smother corals and cause disease.
This week, the Queensland government put forward an alternative plan that would involve the sediment being dumped on land. The proposal has been sent to Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, to approve.
But Smith, a local earthmover for the building industry, said he feared environmental groups would try to delay the process further. A green group that has launched a legal challenge against the sea dumping has said it will not drop the case until it saw further details of the new plan.
Smith said the whole of north Queensland would be “devastated” if the expansion did not go ahead.
“These green groups have got an underlying issue in that they want to stop the export of coal,” Smith told Guardian Australia. “There will always be something they will say to stop it.
“We are in full agreement with the land-based dumping as long as they get on with it. We can’t hold on for another 12 months or two years, we already have businesses in Mackay and Townsville closing down one after the other.”
“We are relying on it to provide jobs,” he said. “There will be no livelihoods without it. We need everyone to know that they are being attacked by these green groups and that we’ve had enough.”
On Wednesday, the Great Barrier Reef marine park authority said the new plan to dispose of the sediment onshore was a “welcome change in direction”.
“Protection of the reef is our No 1 priority, and we support a strategic approach that contains ports along the Great Barrier Reef to a relatively small footprint,” the organisation said in a statement. “Land disposal of dredge material has always been the Great Barrier Reef marine park’s preferred option, in line with the national guidelines.”
The mining industry has estimated that the opening of the new mines in the Galilee Basin area of central Queensland and the expansion of Abbot Point will create up to 25,000 new jobs.
However, the tourism sector, which employs around 60,000 people through visits to the Great Barrier Reef, has expressed concern over the plan to dump dredged spoil near the world heritage-listed ecosystem.
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