Great Barrier Reef to get $500m to tackle pollution and breed more resilient coral
Updated
A $500 million package to help deal with the problems facing the Great Barrier Reef has been announced by the Federal Government.
The funding, to be unveiled today, will go towards improving water quality, tackling the crown-of-thorns starfish, and expanding reef restoration.
It will also help develop coral that is more resistant to high temperatures and light stress.
Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said the reef was under a lot of pressure but those challenges could be overcome.
"We'll be improving the monitoring of the reef's health and the measurement of its impacts," he said from Cairns in Far North Queensland.
"The more we understand about the reef, the better we can protect it."
He said the funding represented the single largest investment for reef conservation and management in Australia's history.
"Millions of dollars will go into science and to better data management and to be able to test the impacts on the reef," Mr Frydenberg said.
"We are looking at a whole range of new initiatives, taking best advice of the experts, working closely with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to ensure that the reef has its best chance into the future."
The funding, he said, would also allow the Government to work closely with farmers "to modify their practices to ensure that the reef doesn't get the large amounts of sediment, nitrogen and pesticide run-off which is so damaging to coral and which helps breed this crown-of-thorns starfish".
Mr Frydenberg was cautious in his response when asked if some damage on the reef was "irreparable", saying experts had told him the reef could be "remarkably resilient".
"The reef supports some 64,000 jobs, over $6 billion it is worth to the economy, and attracts more than 2 million visitors a year," he said.
"So it's a natural, a national and international icon and that is why we're so determined to preserve it for future generations."
Chair of the Reef 2050 Advisory Committee and former governor of Queensland Penny Wensley said global warming and cyclones had contributed to the reef's ill health.
"Our reef is in trouble, our reef has been severely damaged over recent years from a combination of pressures."
Ms Wensley said "the world is watching what we do on the reef".
"If Australia can't get this right as a technologically-advanced, prosperous country that cares about its environment, coral reefs around the world are not going to get this right."
She said the funding was more than the committee had hoped for but still would not be enough.
Climate-change policy needed: conservationists, opposition
Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek welcomed the extra funding for the Great Barrier Reef but said the Government needed to focus on climate change.
"The biggest threat to the reef is climate change and we've got a government that continues to be hopelessly unable to take serious action on climate change."
Ms Plibersek said it stood in contradiction to the Federal Government's announcement to remove protections of Australia's marine parks.
"This is the largest ever removal of any area on land or sea from environmental protection, including areas of the Coral Sea that are absolutely critical to the health of the reef so I guess you'd excuse me for being a little sceptical."
Australian Marine Conservation Society campaign director Imogen Zethoven said the money for problems like water quality and crown-of-thorns starfish plagues were welcome.
"But there's a huge missing piece in the puzzle and that is a dramatically significant response to climate change.
"So unless it comes up with a strong policy, to slash our carbon pollution, stop the Adani coal mine and rapidly shift Australia to renewable energy, we will not see a future for the reef."
She said she hoped the funding would adequately address agriculture runoff and pollution issues.
"The reality is, hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars has gone into reef rescue packages for nearly 20 years to deal with poor water quality," she said.
"Yet we've had very little gain, so it's extremely important that this time around the money is spent properly and we start to see the tide turning."
Topics: great-barrier-reef, government-and-politics, environmental-policy, environmental-health, cairns-4870, qld
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