The Queensland Conservation Council has condemned the Crisafulli Government’s plan to rely on ageing coal-fired power stations for decades, after it was revealed today the State’s coal stations suffered 131 outages in just the last year.

A new Reliability Watch report has identified that over the 2025 winter period, the coal-fired power stations in Australia’s main grid had a staggering 142 outages, including 23 scheduled and 119 unplanned breakdowns. This builds on previous report findings over summer, which found Australia’s ageing coal power stations broke down 128 times. 

Queensland’s coal fleet, despite being the youngest, is the least reliable in the National Electricity Market. From April - September 2025, an average of 26% of Queensland’s coal-fired power station capacity was offline, compared to 22% in NSW and 16% in Victoria. The worst performing coal units during this period are all in Queensland: with Gladstone 1, Tarong North, Millmerran 2 and Callide C3 all being available less than 50% of the time.

Queensland’s peak conservation body says the Crisafulli Government’s half-baked energy plan does not deal with the reality that our ageing coal power stations are increasingly unreliable and need to be replaced. This report comes as the Queensland Government is expected to repeal Queensland’s Renewable Energy Targets this week.

Read the report, Queensland Museum Learning Resources: Climate Accuracy and Sponsorship Concerns (PDF 868k)

Shell-branded school materials are shaping how Queensland children as young as 10 are learning about climate change, according to a new report from Comms Declare.

The investigation shows that Queensland Museum has accepted more than $10.25 million from Shell's QGC gas business since 2015, giving the company potential influence over curriculum-aligned programs and widespread exposure in education materials used by school children.

Despite the Museum's repeated claims of its "full independence", the report finds systematic omissions and distortions in Shell-branded educational resources delivered under the Museum's authority. The materials:

• Leave out fossil fuels as the primary cause of global warming and ocean acidification
• Promote Shell QGC as a "future-facing" company through prominent branding
• Present fossil fuel careers as part of the climate solution, and
• Shift responsibility for pollution from industry to individuals.

The Queensland Conservation Council warmly welcomes a new deal struck by the Australian Government and Greens to improve the national nature law reforms before Parliament.

While significant details are yet to be finalised, including setting the national environmental standards, this deal is a leap in the right direction, according to Queensland’s peak environmental body.

The Government has committed to closing the loopholes that have permitted broadscale land clearing and native forest logging in threatened species habitat, and to ensuring fossil fuel projects cannot receive fast-tracked environmental assessments.

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) says the Crisafulli Government's latest coal deal shows it is more focused on keeping the coal industry on side than investing in regional futures.

The deal is an attempt to keep the coal industry happy after months of relentless campaigning to reduce coal royalties. It involves Argo Queensland's acquisition of a controlling stake in Fitzroy Australia Resources, a move that locks the state into long-term coal production at Carborough Downs, Broadlea and Ironbark mines.

The conservation council warns that extending the life of a dwindling industry ignores the far larger clean energy job opportunities and Reef-dependent jobs at stake.

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) says today's announcement to fast-track a mega coal and gas project in Central Queensland proves the Crisafulli Government is following the Federal Coalition down a path paved by the fossil fuel industry at the expense of Queensland communities and nature.

The Centurion North Development Project has been designated a 'coordinated project', granting it 'streamlined' assessment outside of the normal environmental laws including Coordinator-General discretion. QCC says this special treatment benefits the shareholders of fossil fuel corporations while leaving Queenslanders to shoulder the climate, nature, and cost-of-living consequences.

The project would mine up to 7.1 million tonnes of coal and extract up to 10 petajoules of coal seam gas every year until 2055, despite 80 countries signing onto a roadmap to end fossil fuel dependence last week at COP30 because of their driving role in the climate crisis.

In the time it takes Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to address the Queensland Media Club today, an estimated 75 hectares of forest and woodlands will be bulldozed in Queensland, according to Queensland Conservation Council.

The State's peak conservation body says the overhaul of Australia's nature laws must address Queensland's deforestation and extinction crises.

Currently, Queensland has the most threatened species in Australia and is a global deforestation hotspot, with an estimated 1 million hectares bulldozed in Queensland since the Albanese Government took office.

The Queensland Conservation Council is calling on Minister Murray Watt to work with the crossbench to strengthen his laws to address the deforestation crisis, saying the Federal Coalition has demonstrated in recent weeks they can’t be trusted to prioritise the environment.

The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) and the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) warn that the Crisafulli Government's newly released Far North Queensland Regional Plan fails to confront the region's escalating climate risks and condemns a community already on the frontlines of climate impacts to an even more disaster-prone future.

At an industry briefing in Cairns last week, the Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, Minister Jarrod Bleijie, spoke with crude candour about the Crisafulli Government's 25-year vision for the far north.

The draft plan contains no references to 'climate change', a stark contrast to the 2009 plan, which mentioned climate change 137 times in its 188 pages.

Public consultation runs to 5 January 2026, but the window has been cut to 30 business days and squeezed into the Christmas and New Year period, down from 60 days.

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) is concerned that a review of the GST is a veiled attempt to help the coal industry avoid paying royalties.

The Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC) announced the review today after months of relentless campaigning from the coal industry against Queensland's coal royalty scheme - a scheme which the Crisafulli Government committed to maintaining ahead of their election in 2024.

QCC says coal royalties are a fair, bare minimum to ensure Queenslanders get a share of the industry's super profits, and that the campaign against the scheme is a smokescreen for their own poor business decisions and a failure to accept the climate reality.

At least 19 green turtles have washed up along beaches from Deception Bay across Redcliffe Peninsula and down to Sandgate since October, and dozens of young green turtles and even a deceased dugong on Bribie Island and surrounds in recent weeks.

The Queensland Conservation Council says that these strandings are very concerning and need to be urgently investigated. Climate change is the biggest threat facing marine species, and their decline is sending us a loud message about what's happening in our oceans.

QCC urges the federal government to deliver strong new federal nature laws including national environmental standards that protect threatened species like green turtles, listed as vulnerable under the federal nature law.

Environmental groups, unions, and energy industry groups have raised significant concerns about the Crisafulli Government's Bill to repeal Queensland’s renewable energy targets and allow the privatisation of Queensland’s energy generation.

The majority of organisational submissions on the Energy Roadmap Amendment Bill 2025 flag major concerns, including that the Queensland Government’s decision to axe renewable energy targets and keep coal running without planned closure dates will lead to major price and pollution rises.

In their submission, Nexa Advisory argues keeping Queenslanders reliant on unreliable coal will increase wholesale electricity costs by 21% - or $115.7 billion - compared to a planned, orderly transition. Meanwhile the Electrical Trades Union highlights that it will likely cost $3.3 billion to refurbish state-owned coal power stations to keep them running – much more than the Crisafulli Government has allocated so far.

According to the Queensland Conservation Council, the State Government needs to listen to the feedback received from the majority of stakeholders on this Bill and take it back to the drawing board.