Barrier Reef warning spurned

The Great Barrier Reef is under threat. Photo / Supplied

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has dismissed a warning by Unesco that the Great Barrier Reef is under serious threat from large-scale industrial development, declaring that the state's economy is reliant on it.

In a report released at the weekend, the UN body said that unless Australia improved its management of the World Heritage site, it risked being listed as "in danger" by next year.

Queensland is undertaking a vast port expansion to meet soaring demand for coal, particularly from Asia, and plans to triple coal exports by 2020. It is also building offshore processing plants for the rapidly growing coal-seam gas industry. Unesco cited the projects as among the main pressures on the reef, with coastal development, extreme weather, ship groundings and poor water quality.

Newman said his Government was aware of the issues raised in the report, but it was not prepared to implement some recommendations including that no new ports be created in the area, and industrial development be halted until a strategic assessment of the reef had been conducted.

"We will protect the environment, but we are not going to see the economic future of Queensland shut down," the Premier said. "We are in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat, we all need to understand that."

The federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, agreed the reef was "at a crossroads", and said the Government was acutely aware of the challenges facing it, including climate change.

But he said he had no power to halt developments already approved.

The report expressed particular concern about the port expansion at Gladstone, one of the gateways to the southern reef, and about plans to build liquefied natural gas plants in Gladstone harbour. Dredging there has been blamed by environmentalists and fishermen for poor water quality and a skin disease affecting marine life.

Unesco noted "a continuing decline in the quality of some parts" of the reef.

Larissa Waters, a federal Greens senator, called on Burke to "press pause" on development in the area until a strategic assessment had been made.