Criticism of Reef grant aid

SCIENTISTS have criticised a $443 million grant for Great Barrier Reef research, handed to a private foundation run by oil and airline executives.

The federal Department of the Environment and Energy will be grilled at a Senate committee hearing in Brisbane today over the government grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The Australian Academy of Science has warned that the taxpayer funding “does little’’ to address reef risks such as global warming, land clearing, coastal development, dredging and fishing.

It has criticised the funding of “small-scale restoration projects such as … coral sunscreen and coral gardens’’.

“The Academy is also concerned about the redirection of funding from experienced and well-established Commonwealth agencies such as the Australian Institute of Marine Science, CSIRO, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, in favour of a nongovernmental organisation,’’ it has told the Senate inquiry into the funding deal.

The State Government told the inquiry it is “concerned at the unprecedented approach of providing such a level of funding to a single private organisation without going to the open market to ensure a transparent and accountable procurement process.’’

The foundation employs only 14 staff and is chaired by Dr John Schubert, a former boss of Esso Australia, the Commonwealth Bank and the Business Council of Australia.

A Great Barrier Reef Foundation spokeswoman said it had raised $90 million for reef research in the past 20 years and had a “strong track record of delivering high impact private-public partnership projects for the reef’’.