Mark Willacy is an investigative journalist for the ABC’s National Reporting Team, based in Brisbane. A former Middle East and North Asia correspondent, Mark has reported for the ABC in more than 30 countries. He's a three-time winner of Australia's premier journalism prize the Walkley Award - winning for his coverage of the 2003 Iraq War, his reporting of the 2011 Japan tsunami and nuclear meltdowns, and for breaking the story of one of Australia's biggest environmental contaminations. In 2010 he was named Queensland Journalist of the Year for his investigation into the massacre of more than 30 journalists in the southern Philippines. Mark has written two books. Mark tweets from @MarkWillacy.
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| UpdatedQueensland alone has more than 15,000 abandoned mines, including 300 classified as mega, large or medium size and a new report is suggesting several thousand jobs could be created by rehabilitating these sites.
Topics: mining-environmental-issues, environment, mining-industry, industry, business-economics-and-finance, mining-rural, rural, townsville-4810, qld, australia, cloncurry-4824, mount-isa-4825
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| Updated"Project Synergy" is run by the police fraud squad and raised nearly $200,000 over two years from some of Australia's biggest companies, but the Queensland Police Service will not say if it paid tax.
Topics: fraud-and-corporate-crime, corruption, law-crime-and-justice, police, crime, brisbane-4000, qld, australia
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| UpdatedIndigenous traditional owners from Queensland's Cape York are warning a proposed gold mine would potentially damage one of the world's oldest and most important collections of rock art.
Topics: indigenous-culture, community-and-society, arts-and-entertainment, mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, qld
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| UpdatedA company run by prominent Queensland Liberal National Party members is part of a consortium awarded $3 million under a federal infrastructure program, the ABC reveals.
Topics: state-parliament, parliament, federal---state-issues, government-and-politics, qld, australia, brisbane-4000
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| UpdatedPolice charge the operator of a rogue tyre recycling business at the centre of a recent ABC expose with making threatening phone calls to a former associate.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, brisbane-4000
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| UpdatedAn in-stream mine on a Cape York property is one step closer after the Queensland Environment Department issued a draft authority for the project, despite the same department buying the land for conservation earlier this year.
Topics: environment, environmental-impact, mining-environmental-issues, health, environmental-health, great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, lakeland-4871, cooktown-4895
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Documents obtained under Right to Information reveal taxpayers funded tens of thousands in legal bills for an aborted defamation defence of former Queensland premier Campbell Newman and his attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie.
Topics: laws, law-crime-and-justice, parliament, state-parliament, government-and-politics, qld
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Heavy rainfall this week threatened to trigger a toxic spill of the storage ponds at the Texas silver mine in southern Queensland, prompting government officials to take emergency action.
Topics: pollution, industry, mining-rural, rural, environment, environmental-impact, mining-environmental-issues, water-pollution, texas-4385, qld, nsw, goondiwindi-4390, moree-2400
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| UpdatedThe Queensland Government asks the Supreme Court to force the alleged boss of the outlaw Black Uhlans bikie gang to hand over $360,000 in alleged proceeds from drug sales.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, drug-offences, australia
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| UpdatedThe fearsome South Korean USAS-12 semi-automatic shotgun is among the weapons seized from bikies in Queensland amid warnings from police rural gun owners are being targeted in the black market gun trade.
Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, brisbane-4000, qld, australia, coolangatta-4225
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| UpdatedOfficers involved in a Queensland Police fraud squad project that was selling $25,000 conference sponsorships will not face charges after a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation ruled out any criminal actions.
Topics: corruption, law-crime-and-justice, police, australia, qld
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An internal Queensland Government report warns taxpayers are exposed to a $3.2-billion black hole in funding for the future environmental clean-up of the state's coal mines.
Topics: coal, industry, business-economics-and-finance, mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, environment, state-parliament, parliament, government-and-politics, qld
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| UpdatedThe Queensland Government orders a special taskforce to investigate a rogue tyre recycling operation — run by colourful figure Tony Di Carlo — that is stockpiling nearly a million old tyres in the Brisbane suburbs.
Topics: environment, parliament, state-parliament, government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, rocklea-4106, qld, australia, kingston-4114, brisbane-4000
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| UpdatedColourful former building industry identity Tony Di Carlo is accused of presiding over a disaster waiting to happen as his company builds up huge stockpiles of used tyres, with warnings any fire at the sites could blanket Brisbane in toxic smoke.
Topics: environment, law-crime-and-justice, rocklea-4106, qld, australia, kingston-4114, brisbane-4000
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| UpdatedThe state's fraud squad is selling sponsorships of up to $25,000 for private companies to attend an anti-fraud and cyber crime symposium at the luxury Sanctuary Cove resort on the Gold Coast, the ABC can reveal.
Topics: fraud-and-corporate-crime, law-crime-and-justice, corruption, coolangatta-4225, qld, australia
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| UpdatedGlobal mining giant Rio Tinto wants to sell its mothballed Blair Athol mine near Clermont in central Queensland to junior miner TerraCom for just $1.
Topics: mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, states-and-territories, clermont-4721, qld, australia
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| UpdatedThe Queensland Department of Natural Resources is considering two controversial applications to mine a river on a sprawling Cape York cattle station, despite the same cattle station being bought last month by the state's environment department.
Topics: great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, marine-parks, conservation, federal---state-issues, government-and-politics, state-parliament, parliament, rural, lakeland-4871, cooktown-4895
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An independent review raises serious questions about the system for registering people and companies for sensitive environmental activities in Queensland.
Topics: environmental-management, environment, states-and-territories, government-and-politics, mining-environmental-issues, environmental-policy, qld
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| UpdatedThe Queensland Government is buying the massive Cape York cattle station in a bid to stem hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sediment pollution flowing into the Great Barrier Reef every year.
Topics: great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, marine-parks, conservation, rural, lakeland-4871, cooktown-4895
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| UpdatedContinued coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef could see international and domestic visitors to the region plummet by more than a million people a year, research by the Australia Institute warns.
Topics: great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, tourism, industry, business-economics-and-finance, travel-and-tourism, lifestyle-and-leisure, environment, marine-parks, conservation, australia, cairns-4870, qld
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A dozen former executives from Linc Energy will be investigated over allegations the resources company caused serious contamination at its controversial gas plant on Queensland's Darling Downs.
Topics: mining-environmental-issues, environmental-impact, environment, environmental-management, business-economics-and-finance, mining-industry, qld
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| UpdatedSecret Queensland Government modelling obtained by the ABC estimates it could cost up to $16 billion to meet water quality targets over the next decade to help save the Great Barrier Reef.
Topics: great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, water-pollution, federal-elections, pollution, government-and-politics, environmental-policy, cairns-4870, townsville-4810, mackay-4740, australia, qld
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| UpdatedThe Queensland Environment Department has issued an Environmental Protection Order (EPO) to the former chief executive of Linc Energy, Peter Bond, ordering him to clean up the site of the company's controversial underground gas project near Chinchilla.
Topics: environmental-policy, environment, environmental-management, mining-environmental-issues, chinchilla-4413, qld, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant reveals 600 tonnes of reactor fuel melted during the disaster, with the exact location of the highly radioactive blobs remaining a mystery.
Topics: nuclear-accident, nuclear-energy, disasters-and-accidents, japan
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| UpdatedForeign Correspondent returns to the scene of Japan's 2011 nuclear meltdown and discovers ghost towns left in the wake of the devastating tsunami.
Topics: nuclear-accident, disasters-and-accidents, japan