Great Barrier Reef avoids ‘in danger’ recommendation for now

Green groups lobbying to overturn the decision not to list the Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’ have been warned to think about the jobs impact of 64,000 Queenslanders, after UNESCO gave the reef another stay of execution on Tuesday.

Green groups lobbying to overturn the decision not to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” have been warned to think about the jobs impact of 64,000 Queenslanders, after UNESCO gave the reef another stay of execution on Tuesday.

But, it can also be revealed scrapping of the Hells Gate and Urannah dams was part of the price to prevent the listing, while UNESCO is also seeking more action to stop tree clearing in the region.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek skirted around the issue of whether she would work with the state government to harden tree clearing laws.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee handed down its draft recommendation not to list the Great Barrier Reef just after midnight Australian time, ahead of its formal meeting in September and giving Australia until February 1, 2024, to give a progress report.

It noted Australia had made “significant progress” in responding to climate change, as well as setting more ambitious climate targets and making commitments to create no-fishing zones in a third of the reef by the end of next year and ban gill net fishing by 2027.

It explicitly welcomed the cancellation of the Urannah and Hells Gate dam projects saying they would have “likely negative impacts to water quality in the property”, and noted the government rejected Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland coal mine.

It also called for future and under-construction dams to “show clear alignment with water quality improvement”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the decision to urge holiday makers to visit Australia.

A large adult Green Turtle pokes its head out of its hiding hole between hard and soft coral growing on Saxon Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Brendan Radke

“My message is come and see our Great Barrier Reef for yourself, where ever you are in the world, you won’t regret it,” he said.

Australian Marine Conservation Society spokeswoman Dr Lissa Schindler said the reef was still at risk of an “in danger” listing and called tree clearing a “massive problem”, while Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said the UNESCO decision “isn’t kidding anyone” and said an El Nino weather pattern could cause another mass coral bleaching event.

Ms Plibersek said there were people who thought the reef needed an in danger listing to make the government take it seriously.

“That’s just simply not the case. And I would say to those groups that are lobbying for an in danger listing to think about the jobs impact of that on Queenslanders’ 64,000 jobs that rely on the reef,” she said.

She said tree clearing had reduced substantially under the Palaszczuk Government, when asked about UNESCO’s recommendations.

Opposition environment spokesman Senator Jonathon Duniam said it was “unbelievable” Labor was claiming to have saved the reef in just over a year.

“About the only new decision Tanya Plibersek has taken in this policy area has been to severely damage the activities and livelihoods of many Queensland fishing families - by imposing bans on their netting activities that are not based on serious evidence or science,” he said.

“Various organisations and groups continue to try and discredit the hard work that the Coalition made on the Great Barrier Reef recovery. But they need to look at the scoreboard – the Great Barrier Reef has substantially more coral cover after our years in office, and UNESCO never classified the Reef as “in danger” during our years in office.”