According to the Queensland government, the pristine rivers of Cape York are among the last of their kind on Earth, and must be preserved at all costs. They've turned the Wild Rivers Act into law and, since 2005, nine rivers have been declared 'wild' and protected from development accordingly.

Noel Pearson presents the case against the Queensland government's Wild Rivers Act saying it's bad news for his people who should be trusted to keep the rivers as pristine as they have done for thousands of years.

Stephen Robertson, Queensland's Natural Resources Minister, puts the case for the Bligh Labor Government and refutes Pearson's claim that the Act was a cynical deal made to gain electoral preferences from the Greens.