Queensland's mine cleanup review risks a global policy trap: exemptions rarely shrink

Queensland's government is reviewing its Financial Provisioning Scheme, which requires mining companies to fund site rehabilitation. The stated goal: ease burdens on junior miners without weakening environmental protections. But jurisdictions including British Columbia, South Africa, and the US show a pattern: partial exemptions for smaller operators, once granted, tend to persist and expand—shifting cleanup costs to taxpayers when companies later abandon sites.