Even Abbott's Hack Environment Minister Admits Great Barrier Reef In Serious Trouble

[hatrack]

EDIT

Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, has previously been at pains to inform the world, via the UN, which has threatened to list the reef as “in danger” next year, that the reef is still in good shape and that his Reef 2050 plan should be enough to return it to its halcyon days.

Just two weeks ago, Hunt appeared on Andrew Bolt’s show to assure viewers that approving Australia’s largest coalmine was no issue for the reef, despite the GBRMPA citing climate change as “the most serious threat to the reef.” Asked about the implications of rising temperatures (by Bolt, of all people) Hunt could only offer up the fact that the mine would provide more Indian people with electricity. Hunt also pointed out that the Adani mine was “500km inland, not on the coast as the GetUps and the extreme left of the Australian political scheme would have people believe”.

Such a belief would indeed be strange, although it would also be odd to ignore the fact the mined coal will be transported via a port adjacent to the reef, requiring five million tonnes of dredged spoil to be dumped within its marine park.

This week, however, Hunt has been admirably candid about the reef’s condition, and the threats that face it. “The basic position I think is this; that what you see when you read the reports today is a mixture of pressure and progress, and the pressure is real. I don’t think we should understate that,” he told the ABC. He added that in the southern portion of the reef there were “some real negatives to be honest”.

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/14/environment-minister-greg-hunt-admits-great-barrier-reef-is-in-trouble

[Jim Lane]

1. Maybe they see the Great Barrier Reef in terms of tourist dollars.

That might be the only factor that would get them to care about an environmental issue.