Great Barrier Reef Foundation chairman and businessman John Schubert said the natural wonder and tourist icon will recover from the latest bout of coral bleaching, but the reef will never return to what it was like before global warming.

As the Turnbull government commits a record $500 million in next month's budget to repairing the reef, Dr Schubert said climate change was "100 per cent faster" than the reef's natural ability to adapt to changing weather conditions.