FARMERS have become the scapegoats in an intense resources industry campaign that is deflecting environmental scrutiny from its own impact on the Great Barrier Reef.
Last week, the Queensland Resources Council ramped up its activity and publicised research that blamed farming run-off for marine park deterioration.
Property Rights Australia president Joanne Rea and scientists have challenged this claim.
"Everyone is keen to blame farmers and they don't look at anyone else," Ms Rea said.
She said most scientific research, such as last week's report from the federal government's Australian Institute of Marine Science, was based on assumptions that run-off was from farming.
"Farmers have copped a lot of flak over this, and I think many scientists are ignoring other sources, like the many small towns that have minimally treated sewerage going into the reef," she said.
This is an area that scientist Dr Peter Bell has been studying for decades, and he revisited it in a paper published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science last year.
He noted that although much had been done to reduce nutrient run-off, more needed to done to minimise point-source discharges - namely waste-water from treatment plants from urban areas and tourist resorts along the Queensland coast.
"For example, 300 tonnes of phosphate per year are discharged from the Luggage Point wastewater treatment plant in Brisbane," he wrote.
This phosphorous load was about one-quarter of the total phosphorous load in run-off coming from all the Great Barrier Reef coastal-river catchments and it impacted directly on southern reef.
Dr Bell is not the only scientific voice calling for more research into the sources of land runoff.
Rockhampton-based CQ University researcher Dr Alison Jones said the impact of catchment pollutants on Great Barrier Reef was nothing compared to the devastation caused by a reduction in salinity following major floods.
"The evidence appears to be mounting that floods and cyclones are the major driving forces for the inshore barrier reef - and the Great Barrier Reef in total."
Dr Jones's research, published in prestige scientific journal PlusOne, focused on the impact of flooding and cyclones in December 2010 on the Fitzroy Catchment.
It noted that two years later the coral began showing signs of recovery.
She did not deny the impact of pollutants on the reef, but the question was where the main culprits of nitrogen and phosphorous came from.
"I know we are seeing higher levels of pollutants, but there is no evidence where they are coming from - whether from a farm or urban runoff."
Dr Jones said urban areas needed more scrutiny, and research needed to focus on the impact of the community, for example, the use of fertilisers on lawns, the use of washing powder and the impact of hard roads on water runoff.
"Before you bash a farmer, think about your own backyard."
Meanwhile, the federal government had channelled about $400 million into the Caring for our Country Reef Rescue program since 2008.
Ms Rea said it had an undesired result. "This increases the perception that farmers are doing something wrong, yet farmers are continually improving their practices. They are working hard, and as knowledge improves they improve spontaneously," she said.
