The federal government’s announcement of more than A$500 million in funding for the Great Barrier Reef is good news. It appears to show a significant commitment to the reef’s preservation – something that has been lacking in recent years.
The new A$444 million package, which comes in the wake of the A$60 million previously announced in January, includes A$201 million to improve water quality by cutting fertiliser use and adopting new technologies and practices, A$100 million for research on coral resilience and adaptation, A$58 million to continue fighting crown-of-thorns starfish, A$45 million for community engagement, particularly among Traditional Owners and A$40 million to enhance monitoring and management on the GBR.
A spokesperson for federal environment minister Josh Frydenberg said the funding would be available immediately to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and that there was no predetermined time frame for the spending.
But one concern with the package is that it seems to give greatest weight to the strategies that are already being tried – and which have so far fallen a long way short of success.
Water quality
The government has not yet announced the timelines for rollout of the program. But if we assume that the A$201 million is funding for the next two years, this matches the current rate of water quality management funding – A$100 million a year, which has been in place since 2008.
Yet it is already clear that this existing funding is not reducing pollution loads on the GBR by the required extent. The federal and Queensland governments’ own annual report cards for 2015 and 2016 reveal limited success in improving water quality. It is also known from joint Australian and Queensland government analyses that the required funding to meet water quality targets is of the order of A$1 billion per year over the next 10 years.
In the region’s main industries, such as sugarcane cultivation and beef grazing, most land is still managed using methods that are well below best practice for water quality, such as fertiliser rates of application in sugarcane cultivation. According to the 2017 Scientific Consensus Statement on the GBR’s water quality, very limited progress has been made so far.
The respective load reduction targets set for 2018 and 2025 are highly unlikely to be met at current funding levels. For example, shown below are the current projections for levels of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN).
Dr Jon Brodie is a Professorial Fellow with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville and leads the Catchment to Reef Research Group. His also a Senior Scientist and Partner at C2O Consulting.