TURNBULL NEEDS TO ADDRESS REEF CLIMATE DAMAGE

The extremity of the 2017 and 2016 bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef is a national shame and Malcolm Turnbull’s willingness to sit on his hands and do nothing to mitigate the risk of further bleaching by acting on climate change is disgraceful. 

James Cook University’s ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies has today described the destruction of a third of the Reef as dying from direct heat stress saying, “they cooked because the temperatures were so extreme."

After coming down by 10 per cent under Labor, Australia’s pollution levels have risen every year under the Liberals, and according to the government’s own projections, will continue to rise all the way to 2030.

Yet in the government’s 2017 Climate Review there was not one new policy to tackle climate change and this week we have seen analysis that Prime Minister Turnbull’s weak pollution reduction targets for the National Energy Guarantee will mean no new renewables will be built over the 2020s.

Malcolm Turnbull once said he would never lead a party not as committed to action on climate change as he is, but since he became Prime Minister, there has been no difference between Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott when it comes to real action on climate change.

As current custodians of the Great Barrier Reef it is this government’s responsibility to take real action, not only on agricultural runoff, invasive species and other localised threats to the Reef’s health, but crucially on climate change.

On top of the climate stress on the Reef, Malcolm Turnbull is proposing to remove the largest area from conservation in history from our oceans. This includes reducing the Marine National Parks in the Coral Sea, the cradle of the Great Barrier Reef, by over 50 per cent.

As pressures on our oceans and reefs increase and the rest of the world is taking action on climate change and increasing marine protection Malcolm Turnbull is walking away from its responsibility.

By refusing to take real action on climate change, Malcolm Turnbull and his Government are failing the Great Barrier Reef as well as this and all future generations of Australians.