Recently, the Deputy Premier and the Environment Minister sought to further politicise ongoing efforts to improve the Reef by unfairly and inconsistently linking the health of the Reef to the recent failure of the vegetation management laws. By involving UNESCO’s listing of the Great Barrier Reef in the vegetation management debate, the government is engaging in a scare campaign that undermines the efforts of the agriculture industries to reduce impacts on the reef.
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) refutes the Deputy Premier’s and Environment Minister’s claim that the vegetation management bill was somehow a deal breaker in preserving the Reef. QFF and its member organisations absolutely recognise and fully support a vegetation management framework that will protect the Reef, and look forward to objective discussions on this, but some perspective is needed.
The Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan contains seven themes that provide more than 130 recommended actions for governments, industry, Traditional Owners, researchers and the community to ensure that current and future threats to the Reef are addressed. Only one action refers generally to vegetation management legislation in Queensland. The themes themselves do not stand alone and all stakeholders need to work towards the outcomes across all the themes to succeed.
Previously, UNESCO has righty determined that the Reef does not qualify to be on the endangered list and such a determination should sit outside politics. Realising the objectives set out in the Reef 2050 Plan will require a long-term commitment by both sides of government at federal and state levels, not dishonest politics to further an ideological agenda.
QFF continues to facilitate the Reef Alliance – a partnership between agriculture industries, Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – and will ensure that agriculture does it bit for the Reef. We will continue to work constructively with all governments to realise a properly planned, funded and resourced approach to Reef health.
