Spending Hundreds of Millions to Make a 0.1 Percent Different to the Great Barrier Reef

Commentary Australia’s federal government has thrown the barramundi fishing industry to the sharks as part of the blackmail payout to UNESCO to stop the organisation listing the Great Barrier Reef as “endangered.” However, UNESCO will be back in a few years for another payout—that’s what blackmailers do. Hard-working Aussie fishermen, and all the people who depend on them, are about to suffer severe restrictions on their production. And all based on dubious science. The barramundi fishery mostly operates in the creeks and rivers, or very close to shore. Our out-of-touch government ministers have never explained how catching a barra in a creek somehow damages the Reef, which is far from shore—mostly 40 to 100 kilometers (25 to 62 miles)....