Queensland appoints minister for Great Barrier Reef

9 Replies

Well done Queensland, good luck 🙂

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9 thoughts on “Queensland appoints minister for Great Barrier Reef”

  1. Janos

    Thanks Mike for the positive news. I saw the image on The Guardian. Do you know what is that brownish stuff around the edges of the reef everywhere? Is it rubbish?

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    1. Michael White Post author

      Hi Janos, no that’s actually the coral. It’s often a reddish-brown, but then there are other colours too. The light turquoise colour is very shallow water, usually with sand sitting on top of hard corals, the darker blues just show different water depths; different light waves penetrate deeper ~ red being the shallowest; purples being the deepest. Good question 🙂 Mike

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    1. Venkatasamy Rama Krishna

      That is probably the best news we have ever heard about the GBR. It appears that as from now Steven Miles, will be forever at loggerhead with environment minister Greg Hunt, and PM Tony Abbot. But overall it is good to see Queensland taking responsibility of the territory.
      Adani, Janos is just another one of the most destructive corporations around the world, and it appears Abbot gave hem a free hand in Australia. And we need to remember the Chines are there too….a real cocktail of exploitation and destruction

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      1. Michael White Post author

        Yes thank you Ven & Janos. I also noticed that Cyclone Marcia might cause a problem with an ex-mine ~ excess silt running down the river to GBR ~ but QLD government had contingency plans well in hand and didn’t think they’d have a problem.

        That brings a wider issue into play: the interaction between State & Federal governments. I think Australia largely has it right, USA largely wrong; and Britain has this on the horizon. It comes down to the struggle for power … who is the most important, who has supremacy over the others? QLD had a remarkable approach towards conservation ~ one example is that over the decades something like 90% of sea turtle nesting occurred in areas that had some level of protection (e.g. reserves, nature parks, MPAs etc).Then along comes Abbott and undoes all the legislation, giving a free hand to business & environmental destruction … for money 🙁

        The story in Britain is in an early phase with Devolution being very recent. Scotland & Wales have beautiful countryside and not so many people (as do northern & western England); the big problem is the southeast of England, mostly concreted over & very unsustainable (very limited water & food supplies, and waste being a massive problem). Westminster sees itself as being synonymous with Great Britain, England does too; but from the outside looking in, the Scots & the Welsh notice that England does NOT have its own Parliament. This is actually what the current squabbling is all about: ‘English votes for English laws’; two tiers of MPs in Westminster. The Welsh, Scottish & Northern Irish Parliaments all use Proportional Representation for elections; Westminster doesn’t (it was based on a 2-party system, whereas now there are over a dozen parties in the mix). Quite what happens next no one really knows … there is a general election in about 11 weeks time: we expect some big upsets ~ maybe as significant as Syriza in Greece. 🙂
        [We notive Scotland is frack-free, I think Wales will try for the same; David Cameron says his government is ‘going all out for fracking’ despite massive protests from just about everyone…]

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