2019-08-30
The Morrison Government will be responsible for the death of the Great Barrier Reef unless it takes urgent action on climate change, the Greens say.
"Today's report is a Code Red on the survival of the Great Barrier Reef," Greens Environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"Today's report confirms that things are getting much worse for the Great Barrier Reef under the Morrison government. We must have immediate and comprehensive climate action if we are to save it.
“The future of the Reef, the 64,000 jobs that depend on it, and its value as a World Heritage Area are all in peril because of the fossil-fuel loving Coalition.
“It’s not the Greens saying this, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has again clearly said climate change is the biggest threat to the Reef and without national and global action, it won't be 'Great' for much longer.
“Meanwhile, Matt Canavan is in India courting coal barons and putting the future of the Reef and the climate in further danger.
“If the PM and the Environment Minister insist on keeping their heads in the sand on climate change they'll be to blame for the death of the Great Barrier Reef. Time to stop shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic."
Greens Oceans spokesperson and chair of the Senate Inquiry into the $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said: “It’s official, the Great Barrier Reef, the planet's biggest living organism, has been admitted to the emergency ward.”
“No amount of cosmetic surgery will save it from its inevitable total decline. The life support it needs is urgent and requires drastic climate action.
“Collectively, the world needs to reduce emissions. As custodian of this natural wonder, Australia must lead from the front and it isn't doing that.”