Guest essay by Eric Worrall

It is tough for scientists to maintain the fiction that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is broken, when the government minister responsible for the reef goes and has a look for herself.

Great Barrier Reef is better than expected: Ley

GRAHAM LLOYD



The Great Barrier Reef is not dead, is not dying and is not even on life support, federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has declared after her first official visit to the World Heritage-listed site.

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“Today we saw coral that was struggling but we also saw coral that was coming back, that was growing, that was vibrant,” Ms Ley said.

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“I was expecting to see dead areas with a few patches of life,” Ms Ley said.

“I saw the exact ­opposite to that.”

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Marine scientist Peter Ridd has begun a speaking tour in Queensland calling for a new body to check the quality of reef research.

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Ms Ley was also accompanied on the visit by the government’s reef and recycling envoy and local member, Warren Entsch.

He said it was important Ms Ley had not taken the word of scientists or tourism operators but had “put on the gear and gone under the water to see for herself”.

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In relation to bleaching and ­climate change, he said it was not a new phenomenon: “It has been happening for millennia.”

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Read more (paywalled): https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/great-barrier-reef-is-better-than-expected-ley/news-story/6eef71906c6553453cde8575a6cca0ad