Despite overwhelming opposition from scientists and environmental activists against the expansion of the Abbot Point coal port, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) went through with the decision anyway. Threats of air, water, and noise pollution were not enough to sway this ‘environmental’ government agency against the prospect of economic growth. The GBRMPA approved the project under the condition that strict environmental regulations be put into place, enforced by a site supervisor and monitored for up to five years. Both funding for these programs, as well as impact reports detailing all potential environmental threats have been produced by the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation (NQBP), the very company that is responsible for the project. It seems rather questionable that we are putting the fate of protecting the Great Barrier Reef and its surrounding ecosystems into the hands of the very company that is jeopardizing its safety to begin with. The GBRMPA’s decision also speaks to a major problem with our current political system. The fact that the very agency put in place to protect the environment is more concerned with tapping into a very non-environmentally friendly economic resource, at the risk of causing detrimental environmental impacts on one of the world’s most treasured natural resources, is a perfect example of how political systems are both driven by, and dependent on money.