Hunt draws line in sand on dumping over reef

Australia has ordered a ban on dumping dredge waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef, the Environment Minister said at the weekend, as part of a push to stop the UN declaring the site in danger.

GREAT BARRIER REEF .. for Ian Lloyd Neubauer story .. snorkelling with a Humphead Wrasse. Photo: Supplied

Australia has ordered a ban on dumping dredge waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef, the Environment Minister said at the weekend, as part of a push to stop the UN declaring the site in danger.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt said he had ordered the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to develop regulations to stop waste from capital dredging being dumped in the park “once and for all”.

“We are ending a century-old practice of dumping in the marine park,” Mr Hunt said, referring to waste created by enlarging shipping channels, berths and marinas.

Conservationists say dumping waste in reef waters damages it by smothering corals and seagrasses and exposing them to poisons and high levels of nutrients.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has threat-ened to put the reef, which is a World Heritage area, on its danger list.

The body has given Australia until February 1 to act and Mr Hunt said he would travel to Europe this week to consult on long-term reef plans.

The reef also faces threats from climate change, nutrients washing into the sea and the destructive crown-of-thorns starfish, and the Government was working on each of them, he said.

The park where the ban will apply almost totally overlaps with an expanse designated as a World Heritage Area, but it does not include most islands and ports, as well as lakes and other waterways in the heritage area.

Environmental groups have urged Mr Hunt to go a step further and prohibit the dumping of dredge soil throughout the World Heritage Area, not just within the marine park.

The ban will now be subject to public consultation.