Queensland Funding for Endangered Koalas Diverted to Build Rollercoaster

The Queensland government’s decision to quietly divert $2.7m from what it had previously promised would be a state-of-the-art koala research facility to build a rollercoaster instead was a public relations disaster.

But the Queensland Conservation Council director, Dave Copeman, is not mourning the loss of the jettisoned Future Lab wildlife research centre at Dreamworld, nor its impact on marsupials recently declared endangered.

“The fact that the most recent deforestation data shows that more than 90,000 hectares of likely koala habitat was cleared under the Vegetation Management Act is the real disaster,” Copeman said. “Not a koala tourism facility not being built.”

That description appears a far cry from how it was spruiked back in March 2019, when the then assistant tourism industry development minister, Meaghan Scanlon, trumpeted what she said would be Queensland’s first native animal genome research facility.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/queensland-koala-funding-diverted-to-rollercoaster-could-be-much-better-spent-experts-say/ar-AA1073mq?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=5804f46b8b084412b3ee9a21e5030193

Just what every state needs.  Another rollercoaster!