Mr Newman said yesterday that he would be “insisting” on onshore beneficial reuse in the future. The comments yesterday followed the release of a damning Senate report which called for the halting of dredged spoil being dumped in waters near the Reef.

The Premier said his Government “inherited” the former Labor government’s Abbot Point plan and “massively scaled it back”, with “one-twelfth of the material being dredged”.

He also stressed that the dredged material was 80% sand.

The Premier pointed to Adani’s federal approval, adding that it had “proper environmental approval to undertake the works in the way that the federal minister has laid down”.

But he made it clear that future projects would find it tough to dump spoil offshore.

“In the future, my Government will be insisting on onshore beneficial reuse reclamation,” he said. “But the company has an environmental approval and it’s an approval based on a massive scaling-back on the quite irresponsible plans of the Bligh government.”

Earlier, reports emerged of a fresh plan to dump dredge spoils onshore as debate over the controversial development of Abbot Point continues.

It comes as a senior federal Liberal attacked the World Heritage listing of the Reef as “grossly overrated”.

Senator Ian Macdonald said the World Heritage Committee was made up of people who have “nothing to be proud of”.

“I don’t think we need an international body telling us what to do,” he said. “People give far too much credence to an international body made up of people who usually have not been able to achieve anything in their own countries in relation to the environment.”

“Nobody I know of who is visiting the Reef ever said they were going there because it’s World Heritage listed. Tourism operators in Cairns don’t sell it on the basis it is world heritage listed.”

Despite the Senator’s claims, several tourism operators do in fact promote their tours to the Reef on the basis that it is on the World Heritage List.

Senator Macdonald played down the poor outlook for the Reef from marine scientists and said that it had always had its challenges, but was resilient.

The World Heritage Committee is made up of 21 nations and the listing binds a government to protecting and preserving the reef.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters said the World Heritage “in danger’’ list is an international list of shame and it would be a national embarrassment for Australia to have the Reef included on the list.

“It’s mostly countries that are struggling with poverty or conflict that have World Heritage sites on this list, such as Yemen, the Congo and Afghanistan,’’ Senator Waters said.

“People from all over the world visit our Great Barrier Reef and the Reef ending up on the ‘In Danger’ list would be a disaster for our tourism industry, especially the international market and the diving market.”

Source: www.couriermail.com.au