Protestors angry at plans to massively expand Queensland’s Abbot Point Coal Port terminal have dumped a skip-bin full of sludge at Kevin Rudd’s office in Brisbane.

The sludge was representative of the silt and ocean floor which will be disturbed and redistributed by large-scale dredging operations required for the port expansion. The filthy reminder was put forward by members of the Australian Marine Conservation Society at the doorstep of the Prime Minister's Morningside electorate office.

AMCS spokeswoman Felicity Wishart said: “At the moment, on the desk of the environment minister [Mark Butler] in Canberra, is a proposal to dredge three million tonnes of soil at Abbot Point, only 50 kilometres from the Whitsunday Islands... to dump all that dredged soil back into the reef's waters, to make expansion plans for a major port to be the world's biggest coal port this is the wrong way to be treating the reef.”

The North Queensland Bulk Ports group wants to dredge out around 3 million tonnes of seabed at the Abbot Point port to allow for its expansion; Minister Mark Butler is set to make his decision on whether the project will go ahead sometime late this week.

The Australian marine Conservation Society has slammed the government for its perceived short-sightedness and favouring of the resources industry over tourism or ecological security. Ms Wishart said the Great Barrier Reef, which could be seriously compromised by the port expansion (according to repeated reports from the United Nations environmental arm, among others), is too be a benefit to the country to be thrown away for mining dollars.

“It's a six billion dollar tourism asset, we want the reef to be an election issue, where all politicians from all sides pledge to protect it,” she said, “we are calling on the Prime Minister today to ban the dumping of dredged material on the reef. We don't believe this is the way we should be looking after one of the most important national assets in Australia.”