The Lock the Gate Alliance has welcomed the passage of new laws this morning to prevent mining and resources industry executives from leaving Queensland taxpayers with costly clean up bills for developments.
The Chain of Responsibility Bill is retrospective and should deal with issues such as the liabilities for Clive Palmer's Yabulu nickel refinery and Peter Bond’s Linc Energy underground coal gasification project at Chinchilla.
Drew Hutton, Lock the Gate Alliance president, said Queensland communities had long been calling for stronger laws that ensured mining and resource executives were held accountable for the costs of rehabilitating sites.
“The passing of the Chain of Responsibility Bill today is a big step in the right direction for protecting Queenslanders from cowboy operators who want to skip out on doing the right thing by the environment, our health and local communities,” he said.
“We can’t accept a situation in Queensland where future generations are being left to foot an exorbitant bill to even begin to clean up the mess, due to the refusal of mining billionaires and executives to do the right thing.
"For decades mining companies have walked away from mines, without doing any or adequate rehabilitation of the site, leaving the cost of cleaning up that site to the taxpayer. This bill will hold executives and other associated parties accountable to cover costs.
“A great next step would be boosting resources for the Department of Environment and Natural Heritage in order for it to effectively enforce these new laws and defend our communities and to increase the upfront costs levied on companies” he said.
The Bill is available on Qld parliament's website, here.