The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says it supports the Queensland Government's plan to help protect the Great Barrier Reef. The Queensland Government says it has to introduce mandatory regulations on the use of chemicals in agriculture to protect the reef. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says voluntary land management has not worked.

The plan has been criticised by the Queensland Farmers Federation but WWF says chemical reduction targets must be introduced.
Spokesman Nick Health says immediate action is needed. "There's about 700 reefs slowly dying from 14 million tonnes of toxic pollution and we've known about it for 10 years," he said.

He says a 25 per cent reduction in chemicals reaching the reef is not enough. Mr Health says the Government must provide enough funding for a mandatory regulatory program that leads to a reduction of 50 per cent run-off getting to the reef. But Canegrowers, the peak representative body for Australian sugarcane growers, says it wants financial support from the State Government to implement the new regulations.

Canegrowers chief executive Ian Ballantyne says farmers want to adopt new strategies to help the reef but mandatory regulation targets may be difficult to introduce. "I think if I had an issue, it really is the issue of reef plan and the failure to achieve targets," he said.

"Industry was never part of reef plan, it's a government to government arrangement, the targets set by reef plan were never set in consultation with industry, let me assure you. "If government moves to establish regulation targets, let me assure you, I think they'll be equally unsuccessful."

The Queensland Farmers Federation has accused the State Government of picking a fight with farmers by introducing the regulations. Chief executive John Cherry says farmers have invested money and infrastructure to reduce run-off into the reef.

"We have a 20 per cent reduction in fertiliser application rates over the last decade and we think we can reduce them by another 20, 25 per cent over the next decade," he said. He says farming across the reef catchments is worth $5 billion a year and strategies supporting sustainable farming instead of mandatory regulations are needed.

(ABC, 24/10/2008)