Tanya Plibersek says she will block Clive Palmer’s proposed coalmine near Great Barrier Reef

Australia’s minister for the environment, Tanya Plibersek, has indicated she will reject Clive Palmer’s proposal for a coalmine near Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has said she intends to block a coalmine project backed by mining billionaire Clive Palmer that would have dug for the fossil fuel just 10km from Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef coastline.

Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal project would have mined up to 18m tonnes a year from two open-cut pits near Rockhampton.