Friday 29th of March 2024

making politicians look good...

reef

Great Barrier Reef scientists were told they would need to make “trade-offs” to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, including focusing on projects that would look good for the government and encourage more corporate donations, emails tabled in the Senate reveal.

The documents, including cabinet briefing notes, contain significant new details about the workings of the foundation and the government decision to award it a $443m grant, including:

  • The executives of mining, gas and chemicals companies – and international financial houses that actively back fossil-fuel projects – were among the guests at a six-star retreat hosted by the foundation less than a month after the grant was announced;

  • The media companies Foxtel and Fairfax and the tech giant Google are among a tightly held list of donors to the foundation;

  • The only CSIRO employee contacted about the grant before the announcement in April was in Patagonia, and did not get the email. Documents have previously revealed that the government’s peak science agency was cut out of the decision to award the grant;

  • In August, as scrutiny of the grant intensified, public servants pushed to block a long-planned meeting between the then science minister, Michaelia Cash, and the head of the foundation, Anna Marsden, because of concern about the “optics”.

Emails sent by staff at the Australian Institute of Marine Science outline how government expectations, the ability to leverage private donations and public perceptions “may drive the [foundation] to prioritise shorter-term research initiatives in order to demonstrate progress and return on investment”.

“Where it becomes challenging is that … interventions with the largest future benefit also take the longest to develop,” the institute’s executive director of strategic policy, David Mead, wrote in an email to colleagues.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/26/great-barrier-reef-s...

The lead charity for the Great Barrier Reef...?

Fuck! is the GBR in need of "charity". Have these guys no shame?

 

Yes they have:

We believe climate change is the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef.

We support the Paris Agreement and believe every individual, business and government, both in Australia and internationally, has an important role to play in achieving these targets. 

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is acting by prioritising projects that build the Reef’s resilience to the impacts of a changing climate and participating in constructive dialogue on policy options.

We accept our broader role in helping our partners and the community understand the impacts of climate change and what they can do to care for our environment.

 

Read more:

https://www.barrierreef.org

 

Please fill the begging bowl and the collection plate... This reef foundation is run by captain of industries that have contributed to global warming far more than the toxic hot air from right-wing politicians in the parliament greenhouse...

 

Note: " The lead charity for the Great Barrier Reef." is their own lead heading...

myopic philanthropy to boost public image...

 

A $100 million Great Barrier Reef restoration grant would be tripled by the charity hand-picked by the federal government to administer the money and spent quickly to notch up “early wins” and boost the organisation’s public image, documents show.

The revelations, which involve sensitive cabinet documents, also show how officials canvassed ways to stage-manage the government’s highly controversial funding announcement, including the possibility of recruiting children and Indigenous people to improve the “optics” of the policy.

 

The federal government in April announced it was handing $444 million to the small, business-focused Great Barrier Reef Foundation to fund projects such as water quality improvements and tackling the crown-of-thorns starfish. It did not put the grant to tender or invite its own expert agencies to apply. The controversial move has prompted a Senate inquiry.

The government says the foundation will use the funds to attract additional donations from the private and philanthropic sectors, however it has not identified the amount to be leveraged.

 

 

read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/secret-papers-detail-great-barri...

 

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Get rid of the Morrison government.

 

it was the anti-public scomo...

Apparently, the private funding of the reef salvation fund was done because ScoMo — who hates anything public, like public park benches, public hospitals and public schools — did not want public institutions to be in charge of saving the reef funds. It also helped "his" budget returning to surplus (ahaha) by masking the expenditure as a "charitable" grant... This is a scandal.

 

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But the government has redacted information from documents that might shed more light on exactly who decided the foundation should be the recipient.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation was clearly on the government’s radar before it was offered the grant.

In the same 24 hours that Turnbull contacted it to arrange the short-notice meeting, the foundation hosted the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, at a roundtable on coral degradation on Lady Elliot Island on the Barrier Reef.

The prince was in Australia to open the Commonwealth Games, and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet helped set his official itinerary. On Friday, April 6, Prince Charles visited Lady Elliot Island to attend the roundtable and spoke later of his concern about the need to prevent further reef damage.

The roundtable chairman was Dr Russell Reichelt, who is chairman and chief executive of the government-owned Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and also serves on the GBRF’s board.

The event provided the backdrop for property company LendLease to announce it was partnering with the GBRF and the federal and state governments on a reef habitat protection project.

The federal government and LendLease were contributing $5 million each, with the foundation and the state government making up the remaining $4 million.

LendLease’s managing director, Steve McCann, attended the roundtable with the prince, along with other corporate executives involved in the reef foundation.

It is understood the $5 million was the first formal partnership the federal government had entered into with the foundation. Officials revealed to the Senate inquiry last week that the $5 million grant still has not been finalised.

Keneally, who the government has accused of leading a “witch hunt” about the grant, suggested it was ironic that a $5 million grant had not yet been resolved but the more recently proposed $444 million had been transferred to the same organisation so quickly.

The Environment and Energy Department told the Senate inquiry it conducted due diligence on the foundation before the offer but declined to give details.

The department’s legal due diligence report – of which the index and cover pages were provided – was dated June 8.

It included due diligence on the foundation’s board members.

Two days earlier, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced it had charged one of the foundation’s directors, investment banker Stephen Roberts, with criminal cartel behaviour over a $2.5 billion share deal in 2015. Roberts resigned from the foundation’s board.

read more:https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/09/29/exclusive-morrison-set-reef-grant-terms

the sad news...

Apparently, according to some "disappointed" tourists from Europe, the Great Barrier Reef is in a far worse state than mentioned in the media or in the scientific data. This is why "royalties", especially those with the learners plate, are wheeled off to the "Lady Elliot Island", where the reef is still more or less intact.

Much of the Reef is now is a state of shock, with many dead corals, either bleached or covered in slimy agal green gunk that does not look like anything on the brochures...

the reef ugly status

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The Prince met with Bindi, Robert and Terri Irwin on Lady Elliot Island on Friday, where the group attended a meeting on marine life and coral resilience - and they even made time to hang out with a few baby sea turtles.

Posting to Instagram, Bindi said: “Our family feels extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to meet with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and other dignitaries today at Lady Elliot Island,” she wrote. “We joined together to discuss important methods to protect the largest living structure on Earth. The Great Barrier Reef. We must work together to make a difference and protect these sensitive ecosystems for the generations to come #RoyalVisitAustralia.”

 

Read more at the glossy Royalistan Orstralyen magazien:

https://www.newidea.com.au/prince-charles-meets-bindi-terri-and-robert-i...

 

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