When they were in opposition, they welcomed UN criticism of the then government; now in government, they don't like UN criticism. Plibersek even manages to keep a straight face when expressing her indignation.

Well, it's the same old story, spend billions in sorting problems we continue to create burning fossil fuels.

This could have been dealt with years ago with a DTE commonsense energy policy. And that DTE commonsense would have been a nuclear energy policy as MSR thorium, knowing without question it has to be ours and the worlds future energy provision.

Our new nuclear subs, the Orion class, have a uranium reactor that only needs refueling every 20 years or so, with just a few kilograms of uranium.

Or with a thorium alternative, even less with a much cheaper thorium. The latter would require beefed up shielding given the higher gamma ray signature.

The SMR in the Orion would power a small town or suburb/microgrid 24/7 with carbon free energy, at prices as low as 3 cent PKWH. Even less if the fuel was nuclear waste, given in MSR technology, it is mostly unspent fuel. Can we do any of this incomplete absolute safety? We can as do the Orion class submarine crew every day.

All the prevents a transition to carbon free, reef protecting, nuclear energy is blatant ignorant fearmongering, the sky will fall, garbage in garbage out BS! along with attendant billions wasted trying to protect an insane (coal-fired) status quo.

Our current energy exports could be more than replaced by the transmission of pure electricity to an energy starved world.

Or as hydrogen created from seawater with the world's cheapest, cleanest, safest energy. Nuclear waste burning MSR. With fuel we are paid annual billions to take. Fuel that would power this nation and all or energy customers for literal centuries!
Alan B.

Incomplete safety should read, in complete safety. One needs to check AutoCheck very frequently, given it does this sort of stuff up regularly
Alan.

Graham, well I am back on OLO, since I used a gmail address.
I am 99% certain there is a bug in OLO.

I had always thought that people who knocked the United Nations were
just being silly, but I have to agree the UN is dishonest.
They are prepared to lie their heads off to avoid being shown up as
criminal liars. They even sent a team of "scientists" out to look at
the reef. They must have known about Prof Peter Ridd and I wonder if
they even asked to speak to him. That would be interesting to know.

The government must examine its own position now that they know all
the UN stories about the reef are deliberate lies.
Not sure what the signature to this will be it might be Bezza but it is
in reality Bazz

When I was a kid, marine biologists with their enviable lifestyles never stopped banging on about how sugar cane farms were destroyng the reef through siltation. Then it wwas the Croen of Thorns starfish which was going to desstroy tyhe reef. Naturally, they needed more money to do research to see how this could be avoided. Now, it is climate change.

I would love to be a marine biologist professor living in Far North Queensland. Splashing around on the reef, spending time on remote government owned islands with a harem of grateful female under graduates, zooming around in government tinnies, luaus on the beach, and all to study how climate change has affected the sex life of the green maned toadfish.

Great article. Unfortunately not limited to the GBR. If you are willing to throw 10's of billions of dollars of taxpayers money at a problem, that problem will never ever go away. The marine scientists have been captured. The universities and research institutions too. Exactly the same with global warming though on an even larger scale. Covid probably the worst of all due to the direct impact on peoples health. The only solution I can think of is to turn off the money tap. All of a sudden the reef will be just fine, the weather will be just fine and Covid will be no worse than the flu. Regulatory capture is biggest threat faced by the western world. By the way I loved the raking the Sahara reference. There is no limit to what intelligent and well educated people are prepared to believe. Not so much the great unwashed who tend to have retained their grasp of basic logic and reason.