Mine support reveals irresponsibility of politicians
Geoff Cousins, the current president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, is providing precisely the kind of environmental leadership this country needs ("Delegation to confront Adani over Galilee coal 'disaster'", March 16). The full text of the letter which Mr. Cousins and three others will deliver to the Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani may be seen in the online version of this story, and it supplies three key reasons why the mine should not go ahead. Significantly, the third reason states that "this mine proposal does not have wide public support in Australia". The Australian public are now well aware that "coal is a killer". The fact that our government supports the Adani mine – a looming "public health disaster" and contributor to global warming – is a sad indictment of the irresponsibility of Australia's politicians. They are well aware that they do not have majority support; they may also be aware that the primary duty of every government, state or federal, is to protect its citizens; but to hell with that, both the "Queensland and federal governments are bending over backwards to fast-track this mine".