@dwuuuu; the proof of the pudding is in the eating and only personal experience exposes harsh realities.
My wife and I have visited the GBR from Hamilton Island to Port Douglas on three occasions in the last ten years. We will never make the same mistake again - other reefs we have experienced and including Borneo, WA, Bali and Cozumel provided massively superior experiences.
Two months ago our son and his wife ignored my advice and celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in the Cairns Region, the highlight of which was a chopper ride to and from Green Island to snorkel the GBR. Their comment could hardly have been more caustic - they don't believe people should even still be told it's worth looking at - they felt 'ripped-off'!
Meanwhile the Liberal Party is squealing like a cut pig because international authorities have yet again called out their environmental vandalism on a massive scale which has resurrected the listing of the GBR as 'endangered' they previously demanded be placed on hold.
After even slashing funding to the CSIRO and to local universities undertaking GBR research to the point where they can't even pay their bills and gifting $440 million to what I regard as an inappropriate body stacked with Old King Coal 'leaders' let alone provide credible research any more, Liberals now believe the answer is not to fix the root causes of what's already degraded the GBR but, rather; to lobby to force UNESCO to reverse its draft decision.
Environmental vandalism is core to Liberal Party DNA, it's what they do. But boy oh boy do they squeal like cut pigs when their developed-world-worst record of environmental vandalism and global warming denial is exposed.
