The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has defended itself against media criticism over allegations of perceived conflicts of interest in its dealings with contractors.
In an official statement addressing the media claims, the Authority said it takes the information published in the media very seriously and was looking into the allegations.
“The Marine Park Authority board does not have delegated legislative power to make any decisions relating to the procurement or funding of the crown-of-thorns starfish control program,” the statement said.
It said that last year an independent review of its governance was carried out which made 24 recommendations.
“The Authority supports the outcomes of this governance review and is implementing these recommendations.”
It said that while the new arrangements took effect on the proclamation of laws that resulted from the review, the new laws relating to the Board were included in a Schedule of the Act and have not yet taken effect.
“Schedule 1 will commence on the earlier of a date to be fixed by proclamation, or on 6 March 2019 (12 months after Royal Assent),” it said.
The Authority said the control of crown-of-thorns starfish remained a key initiative in its Great Barrier Reef Blueprint for Resilience.
It said it had full confidence in the effectiveness of the crown-of-thorns starfish control program with monitoring indicating that it had been successful in maintaining coral cover on high value tourism and ecologically important reefs.
‘Our crown-of-thorns starfish control program, as with all our management activities, is informed by the best-available science,” the Authority said.
“Since 2015 we’ve adopted a holistic and integrated pest management approach which includes surveillance, targeted culling and research.”
