Yeah, the Governments of both sides seem to do that a lot. Hardly surprising. Need to be seen to be doing something and the average citizen doesn't care to hear that, 'we're investigating'.
To me, in reading the articles about it, it seemed like the Government doesn't really know how it's going to sort out the barrier reef, so it's just giving a big wad of cash to an organisation that it thinks can do a better job of sorting it out. Having read about some of the current Government activities currently with regards to the reef (e.g. spending 2.2 million on giant fans https://www.theguardian.com/environ...t-barrier-reef-projects-against-expert-advice), it seems like the Government bodies are currently ignoring independent expert advice. Hopefully this organisation will do a better job. I can see some logic in favoring this group to the relevant Government departments. If you look at Government material - seems to show that they're on top of the issues: http://www.environment.gov.au/syste...-b39898cbfa26/files/reef-2050-update-faqs.pdf.
As it stands there isn't really a plan for the money - they're still working on it, they just needed a figure for the budget. So, really, it's a wait and see. You can only really do a 'rigorous assessment process' when you know, tangibly, what you're going to do with the cash. It's hard to imagine this body is going to spend all this money, far more likely that they'll end up receiving applications for projects and funding them.
