Malcolm Turnbulls decision to give $443 million of taxpayers money to the Barrier Reef Foundation, an organisation that didnt ask for it, has just six staff and includes figures with strong links to the fossil fuel industry, is a blow to the CSIRO and its long history of great work in combatting climate change.
The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for National Security
Federal Member for Isaacs
TURNBULLS BARRIER REEF FOUNDATION FUNDING ANOTHER INSULT TO CSIRO
Malcolm Turnbulls decision to give $443 million of taxpayers money to the Barrier Reef Foundation, an organisation that didnt ask for it, has just six staff and includes figures with strong links to the fossil fuel industry, is a blow to the CSIRO and its long history of great work in combatting climate change.
Mr Turnbulls captains call is a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars and is a slap in the face of the hard working climate scientists at the CSIRO in Aspendale, Federal Member for Isaacs Mark Dreyfus said.
There is simply no way to justify that funding of this size would bypass sufficient process and be handed to an organisation with just six staff, that didnt even ask for it. Yet that is exactly what has happened.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the CSIRO, including the experts here at the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Centre in Aspendale, should have been consulted and given the opportunity to use their expertise to offer a real solution to fix the condition of the Barrier Reef, Mr Dreyfus said.
The Abbott-Turnbull government gutted $115 million from the CSIRO in its 2014 Budget. It slashed jobs at the CSIRO Research Centre in Aspendale and put the future of the centre in doubt. And now its ignoring the CSIRO to throw taxpayers money at an outfit that is quite clearly not up to the task.
I call on Mr Turnbull to recall this $443 million and go through proper processes to give expert organisations, including the CSIRO, the opportunity to use their expertise to save the Great Barrier Reef, Mr Dreyfus said.
MONDAY 13 AUGUST 2018
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