Fderal election 2016: Greens’ reef auction for political ends

Bleached and dying coral on the Moore Reef section of the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Brian Cassey

Coral bleaching has created perfect conditions for a political auction of concern and funding for the Great Barrier Reef.

More than half a billion dollars is on the table but Labor and the Coalition are finding the support of protest groups as elusive as their Greens-backed demands are insatiable.

Bill Shorten yesterday received a lukewarm response to the ALP’s reef plan for a $500 million fund over five years, with $377m of new investment. World Wildlife Fund said $377m fell short of what was required.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society said reef repair was as urgent as the Murray-Darling Basin crisis of the millennium drought that eventually warranted a $13 billion reform package.

The Greens are due to announce their reef water quality policy today, but with climate change claimed to be an existential threat to the reef, they have already set the bar far beyond what Malcolm Turnbull or the Opposition Leader can match, with a pledge to ban all future coal developments.

It is no secret environment groups protesting loudest about the reef relish the prospect of a hung parliament and an ALP/Greens coalition after July 2.

With protest groups actively funding scientific surveys of bleaching and reopening the campaign to have UNESCO list the reef as “in danger”, Environment Minister Greg Hunt is so far sticking to the government’s existing programs. The Coalition offers a reef action plan worth $460m, comprising $210m for a reef trust, $100m through the National Heritage Trust and $150m through the Emissions Reduction Fund for revegetation to improve water quality.

Yesterday, Mr Hunt pulled in British billionaire Richard Branson to emphasise the job is being done where it counts.

Virgin Airlines will provide private sector funds to Greening Australia, matched by the federal government, for land repair to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

Mr Hunt stole further thunder from the ALP reef policy announcement with confirmation of a new vessel to tackle crown of thorns starfish outbreaks.

None of this detracts, however, from the effort devoted to building the Great Barrier Reef into an election vote-turner in targeted seats.

The campaign includes blanket online publicity for bleaching survey results, armed with an image bank of devastation, backed-up with telephone surveys and door-to-door campaigning. It is the bedrock of a Greens-ALP preference strategy in key Queensland seats that could prove crucial to the election outcome.