GREENPEACE MUST DEMAND END TO NATIVE TITLE DUGONG AND SEA TURTLE SLAUGHTER AS PART OF REEF 2050

Federal environment minister Greg Hunt's 'Reef 2050 report', will either make him a hero or a villain in terms of what practical outcomes it delivers or doesn't over the coming decades to protect the Great Barrier Reef.


Besides there being zero content in it to directly address the issue of climate change the report does have merit. Greenpeace excels in sensationalism and hysteria, and no doubt has been guilty on various occasions for greatly exaggerating the risks posed to the reef from dredging at Gladstone Harbor and prospectively at Abbot Point, to facilitate the new coal terminal there.


Nonetheless, UNESCO (not Greenpeace), has identified some very tangible and believable risks based on extensive marine biology scientific studies which it views as being a threat to the sustainability of the reef in the years to come.


It's Hunt's responsibility to work with UNESCO, and not against UNESCO, to make certain that the core aims of his report compliment the overall good intentions of UNESCO to protect the reef's ecological value.


The Great Barrier Reef has lost a lot of coral cover, which can mostly be put down to a slight increase in ocean water temperature and agrarian phosphate contamination from on-shore farmland sources.


Obviously those issues pose a significant threat to the reef over the medium to long term and requires action of its very own kind to tackle it sooner rather than later and regarding rising ocean temps indicates that global warming is not bunkum like some in the LNP believe.


However, for all intensive purposes, I am sure Hunt's report aims to be practical and responsible where Greenpeace is impractical and monumentally politicized in dispensing anti-Hunt propaganda which fails the truth test more times than not.


The dredging issue is a serious one for the Great Barrier Reef, and NO WAY, dredge spoils MUST not be dumped within the GBR marine park or any wetlands along the coastline.


Greenpeace would earn a lot more credibility by highlighting the plight of highly endangered, red listed Dugong and sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which continue to be slaughtered by Aboriginals under Native Title Act exemptions.


But its activists evade that issue because many in the ALP condone it and even support it. Surprise! Surprise! - maybe? On second thoughts - not! How can Greenpeace ignore Australia's own version of Taiji if it stands for any integrity?