PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Monday released details of the commonwealth government’s plans to ban the dumping of capital dredge material in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

“We are delivering on our commitment to end this century-old practice. This demonstrates our commitment to the reef and the significant progress we are making to reduce cumulative pressures on this precious ecosystem,” Hunt said.

Under the reforms, zero capital disposals would be allowed anywhere in the 345 000 km² Marine park, covering the full area of commonwealth legislative control.

Hunt pointed out that the Queensland government had also committed to cover a further 3 000 km², including existing port areas which were not in the marine park.

The two areas together would cover the entire World Heritage area.

“The ban will be put in law through regulation and will apply to all applications for capital dredge disposal in the marine park whether past present or future,” Hunt said.

“Coming into government, we inherited five major proposals from Labor to dispose of dredge spoil in the marine park. We have reduced this to zero and are now putting a ban in law.”

The Minister said that the ban was just one element of a much wider suite of measures that the government was putting in place to give greater legal protection to the reef.

“Improving the Great Barrier Reef's health and resilience requires governments and the community to work together to ensure the reef remains one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth.”

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) on Monday warned that a complete ban on the disposal of capital dredge material in the Great Barrier Marine Park would set an already high bar even higher for the mining industry.

“While the QRC supports any efforts that improve the health of the Great Barrier Reef, we also need to be mindful that we are an island nation and we need ports for imports and exports across many industries,” CEO Michael Roche said.

“Our ports and shipping already operate under some of the highest standards in the world. Dredging in Australia is governed by international standards set out in the London Protocol.”

Roche said that the combined Queensland and federal government initiatives to ban dumping in the entire World Heritage Area, were likely to place at risk future port developments that cannot meet these new requirements.

“There will inevitably be future capital dredging projects where there is no viable and/or affordable beneficial re-use or reclamation options.

“We strongly believe that any blanket ban on capital dredge material in the entire World Heritage Area does not represent evidence-based policy and will not prove to be viable in the long term,” Roche said.

The proposed changes to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park regulations will be out for public comment for two weeks until March 27.