The Mackay Conservation Group has condemned the Queensland Government’s fast-track approval of Adani’s controversial Black Throated Finch management plan that will sign the death warrant for the endangered bird and ignores the company’s poor record in breaching environmental laws.

Mackay Conservation Group community organiser, Michael Kane, said the decision was politically motivated and the approval process had been rushed, manifestly inadequate and compromised.

“With the decision today, Australians now have a front row seat to the real time extinction of the endangered Black Throated Finch due to political expediency and a lack of leadership” he said.

“The truth is once Adani bulldozes the tiny finch’s last viable habitat, the birds will literally starve to death in great numbers. This is an extinction that we can stop today. There is still time for the Premier to walk back this process.

“The approval has nothing to do with the best available science or the survival of the Black Throated Finch but is about appeasing an aggressive resource company that has systematically bullied the QLD government into submission.

“Adani is a poor corporate citizen that cannot be trusted to look after Australia’s iconic animals and places. Adani is already under investigation for illegal drilling, has been caught polluting wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef’s waters,  now the mining company want us to trust them to manage one of Australia’s most threatened species.

“Nothing in the finch management plan presented today by Adani has changed or improved since it’s last rejection on the second of May. This is the same plan that government scientists rubbished before the Federal election and does nothing to avert the extinction of the Black Throated Finch.

“Adani’s management for the Black Throated Finch is completely inadequate, basically the plan is to clear the last remaining prime habitat and hope that the surviving birds will fly away to degraded bushland where Clive Palmer plans to build his own mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin.

“The Mackay Conservation Group is urging the public to contact the Premier’s office today to express outrage that the Premier has given the green light for Adani to drive the Black Throated Finch to extinction.

“Adani’s own planning document say the Carmichael project will destroy large swathes of the BTF’s last remaining habitat which currently supports the majority of the remaining wild population.

“Australians should be alarmed by this decision today” said Mr Kane. “When our leaders and regulatory bodies make decisions in the best interests of multinational corporate and vested interests instead of the best available science it is a sad day for all of us.

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For comment contact Michael Kane 0438 766 230