Woooo hoooooo! A victory for common sense - and it came from a government. Who knew that was possible?

intersting decision. Can't wait to see the reasons and even more so the acts of revenge by Captain Bligh.

Does this mean the state govt can now take the feds to court??

YEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

WOW!

I wasn't expecting that!

What a wonderful result. At least some politicians have good common sense. Thank you to everyone who fought so hard to stop this ridiculous dam.

bugger

GOOD.

A sad day, now they will build a desal plant on noosa main beach

Awesome news!

At last a definitive NO instead of an appeasing YES with unfulfillable and unenforceable conditions. The Minister has finally got some backbone.

And Anna Bligh is off the hook with a face saving way out of a very silly corner she painted herself into.

Such a shame that so much money has been wasted and so much grief caused to a whole community. Is that stupid pipeline still going to plough through Yandina and prime agricultural land of Bridges.

That's a HUGE surprise; bet Anna is turning in her grave; er, she's not dead...er, maybe she is...politically

guess i'll be trading in the jet ski for a pair of hiking boots...

Great news.

SUCK EGGS ANNA BLIGH...you didnt get your way this TIME!
Remember we voters will not forget what you wanted to do with this DAM......forcing it down wether we like it or not.
Next time when voting comes up YOU will be GONE.. GONE GONE!!!!!!!
LOVE IT........the witch LOST!

I suspect quietly somewhere in the Brisbane CBD, a builder has popped the cork on a champaign bottle, and started putting a team together to build the two desal plant.

I also suspect, the union did the same, and is probably putting a basket together to send to Mr Garrett as a thank you note for sending Ms Bligh a blunt message - look after your own, or you'll suffer the consequences.

Remember Anna won the last election with the dam already announced. That area is LNP heartland, so dam was never an election issue.
ALP should be gone, but the opposition is pathetic.

FANTASTIC

We have a state goverment that want to get the job of having water done, and this idiot stops it. What's the good of a bloody lung fish anyway.

absolutely fabulous!!

this is music to my ears!!

environmental science has proven the winner - let the midnight oil run free!!

That's incredible news. What a great result.

It's good to know that there are at least some people in politics that have a cognitive ability greater than a 3 year old.

Maybe Anna will be able to just stick with cooking after the next election.

Excellent news, congratulations to all that fought the dictator.
Now Anna can sell off the land and return some money to the states bank accounts and get a respectable credit rating back.
Maybe she wont have to sell of our assets now.......

the old bald bloke is getting back some of his midnight credibility

What a great day for all of those wonderful hardworking people who have fought so hard to stop this absolutey ridiculous plan. Thank you so much for all of your blood sweat & many tears. You are a credit to our region. An thank you Peter Garrett for seeing the sense out of all of this.
Anna Bligh - leave us alone. You are not better than the rest of us.

Sound scientific or economic justification for Peter Beattie's political decision to go ahead with this project has never existed. Both EIS submissions of the Co-ordinator General were misleading and/or deeply flawed. Thankfully Peter Garrett has been allowed by Rudd to do his duty and has made the correct decision.

Anna Bligh has already wasted some $500 million on this mindless project and is being forced to sell public assets to cover that unwarranted expenditure. The Treasurer and Minister DIP also endorsed the project. Were there any pretence of ministerial accountibility in this ALP State Government, all three should resign.

An appeal to the High Court by the Qld. Government to overturn this decision would just be a further addition to this appalling waste of public monies.

maybe the land can be used for the 2 million people moving to the south east in the next few decades??? a giant new town -

peterville?? bligh(t)

At long last the Environment Minister has made a decision FOR the environment. Well done Peter Garrett. In relation to the where to from here? Desal plants seem to be the flavour of the month - how about placing them near where the water is needed, that is Brisbane. Desal plants in Mudjimba & Bribie Island with a one way pipeline to Brisbane from the Sunny Coast is NOT the answer.

surely they can do a desal plant off shore, say from fisherman island?? wouldnt that make much more sense??

Congrats to every who fought this fight - you have obviously done it well enough ---

as for the silly woman in george street -- howis she going to explain the huge amount of money already spent on site prep -- and how is she going to explain to all those folk who are going to lose their jobs???

good bye, bligh!

This awesome decision vindicates the locals who based their campaign on science and reason. Sure emotion got caught up in, but that was understandable given the massive social dislocation this proposal caused.

Fantastic news, and thanks to Peter Garrett from the local community.

When looking at alternative water sources, the State Government would be wise to consider other dams in the Mary Valley, on the Obi or at Cambroon, could be rejected for the same reasons.

So the man HAS a pair!?
Now - where do I line up to get my $500M back? - Anna!?

Thank you. Thank you. Sanity prevails.

Does this mean we don't have to hear both sides whining all the time now?

I hope so.

I wonder if the 'Save the Mary' crew will help the fight against the desalination plants?

Somehow, I think not.

Ed, This is a welcomed decision and one that won't sit well with the Queensland Government especially when it was all about catering for the massive explosion within the S.E corner of this state which also, remains under much pressure and uncertainty.
The Queensland premier also needs to have a real hard look at whether this state can continue to see massive population without having various infrastructure in place even though, paying for water is clearly a money making racket. $500 million wasted sofar on the Traveston Dam project and further, should've been used to bring water from up north via a pipeline but that is another issue for debate. I'm tired of this pathetic government not engaging with the community in bringing a fairer lifestyle and a future for others who will settle in this state. Now we await news from the government on whether it's going to push ahead with various desal plants along the coast - such as, Bribie, Marcoola or the Brisbane River. The Australian Prime Minister stated last week that the decision of his minister wouldn't be based on political needs etc. I would be surprised that the federal election due this time next year, wasn't a factor as giving the Queensland government the go ahead to destroy a eco-system and various species would've affected the government's electoral chances.

Thanks Peter Garrett for restoring our faith in politicians. It's also reassuring to see the EIS process actually does work. Wonderful news.

Woopie do !! And I'm a miner not a greenie !!

This is the 2nd piece of common sence to come out of the "Feral" Govt in the last 2 days - and that's scary !! The other piece was the decision by the High Court that drunks are responsible for their own actions !!

Now then, in which Labour electorates can we put the desal plants ? Maybe Jim Elder & Co could help Annie find a bit of suitable land in Murrarie or Mt Gravatt.

We should have a big party out at Amamoor and Midnight Oil should headline. Go Pete, you still rock!!

Debbie, why would they want to fight the desal plants? Is'nt it a better option than the dam, like one blogger suggested build it in Brisbane where the water is needed not here on the coast.

Maroochydore now gets a non operating desal plant. just like the Tugan one. A wad load of money for something that doesn't work.

So the next battle is to oppose the desalination plant at Marcoola which will have a major visual impact on Mt Coolum and it lies on a floodplain.

Now her spittle will contain excuses for not achieving her hollow election promise af 100,000 new jobs

Ah magee you've done it again.

I can't think of words to describe the relief I felt when I heard that Peter Garrett had given he Dam the flick, three cheers for Garrett.

wilbursj: i think that would be an improvement to Noosa - not that anyone would notice one more large and ugly cement building crowding the beach and foreshore.

debbiemagee.

So the Dam is not an acceptable solution and you obviously think that desal plants are not an acceptable solution either.

What does this suggest about the government's plan to double the SEQ population as a sustainable plan? Where is the water going to come from? In fact, where are the jobs and all the other infrastructure going to come from...considering that the State is now broke.

This is awesome news I hope Captain Bligh reads all these comments and takes notice of them,maybe the editor can gift wrap these comments and send them to her.
I think the Government should offer all those people it forced to sell their land the option of buying back at cheaper than cheap prices to compensate them.
Arrogance and I know better than you attitude will get you nowhere Queenslander`s are smarter than you think and maybe you should just listen to Us Capt. Bligh! Well Done Peter Garret

I thought the dam, while not ideal, was a more acceptable solution than desal plants.

It would have been far wiser to have put this money into tank rebates from the word go - make it compulsory for every household to have a rain water tank (using the rebate scheme) - problem solved !! Or is that too simple?

First the Rum Rebellion, now the Dam Rebellion. These Blighs really should stay out of public office!

I agree, I think the money should be used for the hospital (which we need now!).

I really believed Peter Garrett would make the right decision he is no silly polly
You rock Peter To all the people who worked hard to save and for every one that was involved even those people who dont live near the Dam and its surrounding you all are amazing.
Have a Party lash out on Champagne You deserve it
Captain Anna Bligh will have to drown her sorrows not celebrate Poor Captain Anna Bligh

Seems the wildlife has a reprieve, and that’s great. We humans hopefully are learning something though I cannot understand, with the intelligence we can display, why we still blunder along. Maybe if common sense were more common. Seriously good Mr. Peter Garrett.

Whether we like it or not, our population (SE Qld, which the coast is part of) is going to increase and do so at a fast pace. For this we will need more water (and rain tanks will not solve the problem by themselves). That means either dams or desal plants. Or is the Council and SC Daily going to be one eyed again and object to desal plants as well. Mayor Abbott talks about more jobs on the coast, yet opposes major infrastructure like this. Shame.

Fantastic news - let the Mary flow and long live the great Mary Valley area.

Brilliant decision - now we have to fight Anna on the desal. plant at Marcoola.

When is the next election, Anna???

This is great news! As kids, friends and I always took canoes or kayaks down the river every Easter, often floating over the top of these giant eel-things that turned out to be the lungfish. That trip and those lngfish would have been cactus had Anna Bligh's stupid dam gone ahead. Tribute to Peter Garrett for sticking it to Anna for this truly dumb idea.

Now the heat will no doubt be on the other dumb idea - the Marcoola desalination plant (in the middle of critically endangered wallum heath lands). This should also be canned, and effort focussed where it should be - on demand management.

Ed, I can't find one resident who is disappointed about such a good decision. I am not. If The Government is concerned about population growth and the concentration of 'it' in the SE corner of Queensland then be procative in shifting the migration north! If more money were spent on developing other major regional cities along the Qld coast then the stress of providing basic supplies would deminished - pipe the water from the northern catchments and then no ecosystem need be threatened and many more regions could benefit.

Wow, Peter made the choice I never thought he would have! Way to go Pete for standing up for the overwhelming majority!!

Good news dam busters . This clears the deck for a double dissolution early in New Year and we can keep the roll on and clear away the climate change deniers in the Coalition : Barnaby Alex Peter NIck et al

The word from LNP headquarters is that they are in complete shock .. This is the outcome they feared the most.
A DD just may be the end of the road for the fading Nationals.

Finally Peter Garrett is making a stance to defend the Mary River!
Next stop banning the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill for good.

thumbs up to all the guys from traveston, (NOT) So all you guys from traveston open all your wallets and you guys starting paying for the water that the coast will need to survive on in the near future.
Thanks heaps now there are still 900 people out of work
real smart guys

How sweet it is..........

Who could ever forget - Remembrance Day, 2009.

Thank you, Fletcher Garrett.
For saving the Bountiful Mary and setting Bligh and her cronies adrift. Perchance, this time, they will not make it to land.

Thank you........

Congratulations to all those involved for so long - it is the best news ever !

Thanks also to Peter Garrett and the Bureaucrats within the Canberra Environment Dept . .They must have shaken their heads in disbelief at the Qld. submissions they had to read !!!

The Qld bureaucrats can and should be heartily ashamed of themselves . Next time they do their reports maybe , just maybe , they will use their environmental knowledge and not write reports the way their ' political masters ' want them written .

I bet ' the Blight ' wants the desal plant at Marcoola so that she can bleed the Baroon Pocket dam dry
for her Brisbane Electorates - the PIPES are
there ,aren't they ?

We will be left with very expensive desal water .
Marcoola is flood prone . Maybe , ' Blight ' should check out the latest AUST Govt. Report on "Managing our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate" before she opens her mouth again and causes another near HUGE Blunder .

No collusion in this decision?

~AB~"Peter help me out of this fiasco, you stop the dam and your credibility will be restored, I won't have to built the bloody thing, 'cos quite frankly we have NO cash in the kitty"

~PG~"O.K. Anna, I will say NO to save your bacon and I could do with a bit of point scoring, because I have heard rumours that people think I promised a whole lot of stuff when I used to be a "greenie" and I don't seem to be as popular as I once was. I do miss being a media tart and now they will all love me again.. Oh goody, this will work out for both of us.
How about lunch next week up at the Imbil Pub?"

~AB~"Would love to have lunch, they are so going to love me out that way, that is until I put the rents up on all the properties we resumed and then leased back for a pittance. Have to go and get some tears of dissapointment happening for the media, ha ha!! Toodles Petie"

A win for another Minority.....Give cooloola a ballot to hear the truth.Was just the loudest and most public voice heard, or risk being threatened for speaking against them. Now will the Mary valley protestors contribute on going future funds to help the endangered species? NO!! They won't contribute one cent to helping the environment because it no longer has a use to their cause. No dam... then mary valley should be unable to BUY WATER when there tanks run dry.............Hypocrites

Mungogerrie - not sure about her ability to put rents u, I know of one former property owner who managed to obtain a lease for ( it hink) the rest of his life, at around 56 dollars a week ... a non indexible rental!! Its in writing, and if others didnt do that they have slipped up big time.\

David_morris from gympie,....the Mary Valley protestors have money?? Hmmm I thought they were struggling to afford what they afforded.

Now about the desal - why doesnt anna at least try legislating for ALL properties, be they highrise, or suburban housing blocks to mandatorily be equipped with water tanks??? ie become at least partly self sufficient? I know its not a "new" idea ...there should also some kind of water catching devices on picnic shelters, public toilet facilities and bus stop shelters.
Anna has to start thinking outside the square a little instead of relying on the easy way out all the time ...
Maybe after this re buff she might start listening to what the people are saying ........ but I doubt that's likely.
those who come on here venting their spleen are either disenfranchised labor supporters or just too blinkered to look at the scientific facts -- thank god Garret's eyes were opened to this, and he didnt bow to party politics
But then his boss does have rellies in the area.. and blood is thicker than water

Anna Bligh spent $$$ of Qldrs Money,and DID NOT check FED ENVIRONMENT LAWS ! Shows her arrogance.
Anna you will pay next election.
Peter Garrett said, he was only applying the environment LAWS.

wooohoooo!

Y'all don't really think that this was a decision based on science or the ecology of the Traveston area, do you? Come on people...we are dealing with politicians and big business.

Wait for the hidden agenda to be revealed. Then they will say 'we folded on the dam, but the desal plant/power station/whatever must go through'.

Sure, it's a win for the lungfish, but at what future price?

Mark Furler:
Congratulations on the tremendous help you have given in this victory. Without the “Daily” the story may have been different.

What a truly wonderful outcome.

Now the people of the Mary Valley need to bring a class action against Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie for the criminal destruction of their lives.

Imagine how much money would have been saved if Anna Bligh had not started this project before she had permission? She has wasted OUR money, and we have the right surely, to ask for it back.

Never again should a government of any type be allowed to run roughshod over their constituents.

The article said "Gympie Uniting Church minister, the Reverend Iain Watt, said the community had felt powerless in the face of the government’s determination to push the dam through"

Damn Christians forcing their religious agenda on us again.

Would your response be something like that DebbieMagee?

Dam!

see Mr Garrett there is a GOD!

...he just answered your frantic prayers, so you can put your political suicide note back in your pocket,

.

Great news and right decision. Celebrating news here in UK having lived on Sunny Coast for last 3 years.

Big hug Glenda! You rock, woman! What a hero! Heroine!
Legend! Warrior Princess! Forever honoured in the lore in the land - immortalised in our heritage - your name will be remembered for centuries to come. We pay you homage, gratitude and a respect that will pass on to your children's children.

Glenda for Premier!

Final decision: fish are more important than people.
You will regret this decision ... maybe years down the track ... but one day.

I think mungogerrie hit the nail on the head.

I have to admit, dm and mungo, that possible scenario has come up a lot. Two problems I reckon;

(a) Too much at stake, too many stakeholders, and too much already invested for it to ever be that simple. And,
(b) Even if it was plausible, unlike Peter, Anna has been too stupid and reactionary to capitalise on it.
Earlier, I said that she has blown the biggest political opportunity of her life. This could have been a whole new start for her. But I revise that - she hasn't just blown (lost) it; she's done a complete 180 and immediately, blindly, shot herself in the foot, leg, neck and head, yet again. Instead of using it as a springboard to restore her career and image and win over the LNP stronghold here, she's dived straight into another quagmire, alienated all kinds of people and made herself look even worse than she did - when her face had been saved for her! All she had to do was shut up for a while; pull her head in. Genius; sheer genius. It's rare to see someone in office just throw away such a glaring political opportunity like that... Might as well throw any "collusion" out the window - for Anna anyway.

It's a good theory though, mungo.

Dear Debbie, can we be best friends now??

OMG what a breakthrough!

First time ever, we agreed on something, I knew it would happen one day.
Just the one day, tomorrow is a different day and a different opinion, but that's fine.

Zorro, I think you have something there, if Bligh had not mentioned Desal this week, it would have put her in good stead with her ALP voters. She could have pulled it out of her hard hat next week, whilst everyone was still revelling in their glorious victory and caught then off guard.

Bit worried about Garrett being the messenger boy.

He will now become a hero in the eyes of some.He will go down as The Man Who Saved The Mary.
Meanwhile Bligh will blame all the victors for the loss of the hundreds of jobs she promised on the coast.

Even beyond that, mungo. Far beyond it - if she had the tiniest bit of vision. She actually had the opportunity to be innovative and to mend bridges - let alone save her reputation. She was handed a clean slate with the Sunshine Coast and simply threw it away.
Textbook stuff...

Yes a victory so sweet, but I DO despair over the next chapter - a desal plant. Forget CQ, FNQ or the West. Kindly locate it right amongst Anna's constituents as we all know our taxes and the world DO revolve around SEQ.

....she was freely handed a "Get out of Jail Free" card, a virtual "royal pardon" if you like, and instead of using it simply tore it up, and then, decided to sulk, not listen to anyone, and go out and immediately re-offend - in a big way. I'll show them! The woman's an idiot.
Sorry, I'm incredulous... Still trying to take it in...
Got all these wonderful images and memories of Sarah Palin flooding in...

You would think that if they had been "colluding", she would have had a better plan than that...!

For a political opportunist - she has missed the opportunity of her life! You heard me, Anna...

WAY TO GO< BEST NEWS EVER>

Im thinking it would have been alot cheaper to buy everyhome a rain water tank. As we do in the outer communities. Then every new home should get a rebate. how easy deeerrrrrrr........

Surely, you are only running out of water because the whole backyard is a pool , every bedroom has an ensuite with a spa, while 3 showers a day are the norm.
Get a life, go down to Victoria and ask the locals how they are expected to make a living with a ration of 155 litres / person/ day.
When every river is polluted, every animal killed, every tree logged and the last fresh air poisoned, you will notice that your money will not buy you much...