Regulation Needed to Save Great Barrier Reef
The beautiful Great Barrier Reef - if climate change doesn't destroy it first, sediment and runoff will. Photo: Copyright (C) Richard Ling (rling.com)
Anna Bligh, Premier for the Australian state of Queensland, has indicated that she would move to introduce farm regulation in order to save the Great Barrier Reef.
Ms Bligh’s announcement came on Friday, during the Reef Water Quality Summit in Parliament House, Brisbane.
The summit was being held in response to a recent report on the water quality around the reef. The report shows that the water quality around the reef is not improving. Sediment and phosphorous discharge levels are four times higher than they were prior to European settlement, and nitrogen discharge levels are five times higher.
Much of the discharge comes from farms and mining sites located on the mainland adjacent to the reef.
Reef Water Quality Action Plan
In order to address this issue, the State Government launched a 10 year Reef Water Quality Action Plan with the Federal Government in 2003. Ms Bligh said that, since launching that plan, her Government has invested about $25 million per year in protecting and managing reef catchments.
The goal of the Reef Plan is to:
halt and reverse the decline in water quality entering the Reef within 10 year
The plan aims to acheive this goal with following two objectives:
- Reduce the load of pollutants from diffuse sources in the water entering the Reef; and
- Rehabilitate and conserve areas of the Reef catchment that have a role in removing water borne pollutants.
To date, no regulations or penalties have been included in the plan. Instead, farmers have been given financial incentives to improve land practices.
Voluntary Action is Not Enough
But Ms Bligh says that after 5 years, not enough is being done.
“We want to work with farming groups, we want to work with scientists, but after five years of a voluntary approach the science is telling us it’s just not working” she said.
“We need tougher action and a renewed sense of urgency”.
Ms Bligh indicated that the voluntary system wasn’t working and needed to be replaced by regulation.
“The science cannot be ignored and new action will be needed. That means moving from a voluntary regulated system and making the financial commitment needed to make it work” she said.
Responses to The Premier’s Announcement
John Cherry, CEO of the Queensland Farmers Federation, wasn’t happy with the announcement.
“We believe we can move a lot more farmers to best practice through voluntary measures,” he said.
“We are concerned that regulation will undermine goodwill and make it harder to achieve that.”
Brett de Hayr, CEO of broadacre farm lobby AgForce shared this sentiment.
“Industry certainly recognises we need to look at controls for those people who won’t do the right thing, but for states to move down a purely regulatory approach - you don’t get best practice from regulation, you get the lowest common denominator.”
But Andre Leu, chairman of the Organic Federation of Australia, welcomed the news. He hoped that the premier’s announcement would lead to the farming and research community working together with the federation on ways to adopt commercially proven methods to reduce pesticides and synthetic fertilisers.
Tags: australia, great barrier reef, water quality
