Great Barrier Reef to get $60m rescue package from government

Malcolm Turnbull has announced a $60m rescue package for the Great Barrier Reef which includes research on developing “resilient” coral, and paying farmers to pollute less.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef - one of the world's wonders.

The package, to be spent over 18 months, will also include an increased number of reef officers and vessels targeting crown of thorns starfish outbreaks.

More than half the package, $36.6m, will be spent on “supporting farmers stopping runoff off their properties” in order to improve water quality, the prime minister said.

Turnbull said there was a “very strong link” between water pollution and crown of thorns starfish outbreaks.

Read Helen Davison’s story from The Guardian - “Great Barrier Reef to get $60m rescue package from government.”

(The rhetoric and money will convince many that the Turnbull Government is serious about saving/protecting the Great Barrier Reef, but it is simply more smoke and mirrors - warming oceans brought on by climate change is the root problem and despite Mr Turnbull’s declarations, today’s announcement does nought to save the reef, one of the world’s wonders, from the ravages of a disturbed climate system - Robert McLean)