The Abbott government will permanently ban the dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef marine park, including for projects already issued permits for offshore dumping at Abbot Point.
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Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced draft laws on Monday that will "ban capital dredge disposal in the marine park forever".
The move makes good on a pledge the government made last year to end offshore dumping and comes just three months before UNESCO's world heritage committee meets to consider whether the Great Barrier Reef should be given an endangered listing.
The government has mounted a fierce international lobbying effort to avoid such a listing.
Speaking in Brisbane, Mr Hunt said the laws would end a practice "which has been going on for 100 years in perpetuity".
"It covers not just future proposals, it covers not just present but also any pre-existing proposals or applications for the dumping of spoil in the Great Barrier Reef marine park area," he said.
Mr Hunt said he had worked behind the scenes last year to ensure projects that would have involved offshore dumping at Abbot Point moved to onshore dumping.
That decision was prompted in part by concerns raised by UNESCO and came after a campaign by environment groups opposed to development at Abbot Point.
"We've taken five port disposal proposals and ended all of those for marine park disposal and today we've gone to the highest level, so really of banning in perpetuity disposal in the Great Barrier Reef marine park," Mr Hunt said.
"The world heritage committee asked to us do level one, we've gone to level four."
Greens environment spokeswoman Larissa Waters said: "Thanks to years of passionate protest from the community and the Greens, the federal and state governments are finally accepting that our reef should not be a dumping ground."
But she said the draft laws only applied to the marine park and "not the larger world heritage area".
"In the last five years, 80 per cent of the dumping has occurred in the one per cent of the World Heritage Area that is outside the marine park," she said.
"Banning dumping in just part of the Great Barrier Reef doesn't stop the planned dumping off Gladstone and Townsville in the World Heritage Area and it risks other dump sites simply being moved closer to shore."
Mr Hunt said the one per cent that was not covered by the federal government's laws fell under Queensland law.
He said the new Queensland government had indicated they would take legal steps to "cover that gap".
Last week, Queensland's Labor government announced a deal that would allow Indian mining giants Adani and GVK to dump dredge spoil on land at a site known as T2, which is adjacent to the existing coal terminal.
The capital dredging costs are to be met by the proponents, not the taxpayers.
After last week's announcement by the Queensland government, Adani said the plan reflected "a consistent approach in both Canberra and Brisbane with respect to onshore disposal that Adani has publicly welcomed for some time".
"Adani has long welcomed the move to well-managed and closely regulated onshore disposal of dredge spoil at such a site, as it is key to underpinning community confidence in our projects," a spokesman said.
Greenpeace described the ban on offshore dumping on Monday as "a bandaid, rather than a cure".
"This is a small step in the right direction, but fails to offer full protection to the Great Barrier Reef," campaigner Shani Tager said.
Ms Tager said the only way the government could protect the reef and expand conservation efforts was to abandon the expansion of coal projects in the vicinity entirely.
"Banning dumping in the marine park will not protect the reef from the massive coal port expansions in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The expansion of Abbot Point port requires extensive dredging that will destroy dugong habitat, and the port will send hundreds of coal ships ploughing through the Reef each year and contribute to climate change," she said.
