Summary
Early signs of the Government's replacement framework for
the Wild River's legislation indicate that little will change
under the new regime. Mining and petroleum activities within
defined areas will either be prohibited, or heavily controlled.
However, the overall area of restrictions may be increased.
The announcements, made by Government on 1 August 2013, were in
response to a report by the Western Rivers Advisory Panel
(WRAP) released on 2 July 2013.
The panel (consisting of various interest groups including
mining) was asked to report on 'alternative strategies' for
protecting these important Queensland river systems.
The resources sector, represented by the Queensland Resources
Council, strongly opposed the development of a new law as it argued
this approach would simply trade one Wild Rivers' regime for
another, however labelled.
