The Queensland Government recently announced a new policy regulating trans-shipping (unloading and reloading at sea) of coal off Queensland including within the Great Barrier Reef. While this looks like increasing protections it breaks a commitment by the Labor Party to not allow trans-shipping in reef waters by making exceptions for "designated ports", like Abbot Point. With a quick turn around date for the proposed regulation NQCC made a submission, available here: Trans-shipping_submission.pdf.

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NQCC submission on the Coral Sea Marine Park Draft Management Plan.

On 20 September public comments closed on the federal Department of Environment and Energy’s Draft Management Plan for the Coral Sea. This was an opportunity for NQCC to have its views heard along with groups and individuals from around the country and the full text can be found here.

You may recall, Australia was heralded as a world leader in 2012 when the Marine Park Network and particularly the Coral Sea Marine Park were declared by the Labor Government. The Australian public overwhelmingly supported their declaration. This followed some 15 years of research, advocacy and consultation including some 10 years work by consecutive governments of both major parties. It included campaigning by NGOs in Australia, such as former colleagues of mine at WWF, one of whom received a richly deserved AO in part for her role in the Coral Sea declaration. To see this good work partly unravel is disillusioning. But it is not over yet!