The Palaszczuk Government will always stand up for the reef, and has never shied away from its obligations to protect it.
Since this report was written, things have changed.
We finally have a Government in Canberra working with Queensland and acting on climate change.
The report calls for the Federal and State Governments to undertake ‘ambitious, rapid and sustained’ action to protect the reef.
That’s what we are doing.
Since the mission, we have taken ambitious action on climate with a $62 billion Energy and Jobs Plan that will generate cleaner, cheaper energy right at the reef’s doorstep, and transition our coal fired power stations to clean energy hubs.
In last year’s budget we committed $270 million to continue the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program, and address water pollution, taking our total spend since 2015 to over $1 billion.
We’re scaling up land restoration, supporting farmers to improve runoff, banning more single-use plastics and driving sustainability with a $1.1 billion Recycling and Jobs Fund.
It builds on strong, tree clearing laws we introduced in 2018, as well as reef regulations we introduced to address land-based sources of water pollution into the reef, both measures opposed by the Queensland LNP opposition.
We will continue to build on these actions, while supporting the unparalleled science and management frameworks underpinning our conservation efforts, as recognised by the report.
