03:51

Senator Susan McDonald has had to reschedule a planned appearance with Dr Peter Ridd and the Green Shirts Movement at an event intending to lobby against the Queensland Labor government’s environmental regulations, which they claim are “anti-farming”.

McDonald and James McGrath have a Senate motion attempting to set up an inquiry into the issue – and it looks like the LNP senators are seeking to find support for Ridd’s controversial claim that farmland pollution does not significantly damage the Great Barrier Reef.



Ridd has been on a speaking tour, supported by rightwing commentators and sugarcane industry managers, campaigning against proposed state regulations limiting sediment and chemical runoff on the reef coast.



An expert panel led by the former chief scientist, Ian Chubb, has warned that Ridd is misrepresenting robust science about the plight of the Great Barrier Reef.



The full text of the motion is: