I went to his lecture when he came to my town ( a sugar town ). Your views on his lecture could not be more wrong.
He is a physicist by trade. His and his team (because he was the lead researcher) main research area was land/river runoff into the GBR. His team had produced over 60% of the research in this area, a second you would expect being the James Cook Uni own team. They used 6 different experiment types to determine the level of effect of river runoff on the reef. Each experiment method returned the same conclusion. Apart from inner reef within a mile of the river mouth plume there was negligible effect on the reef due to mud, nutrients or chemicals in river runoff.
The main reasons given were that the river water volumes were small compared to the volume of water in the reef and when the water in the reef is flushed in out twice a day with tides and also normal current the effect of dispersion rendered the river pollutant effect unmeasurable more than a mile from the river mouth.
Ridd was compelled to speak out when his team’s research was ignored by government departments in favour of a researcher with minimal ability, experience and research volume that held the opposing view on the effect of river runoff on the reef. And that guided the Queensland legislation that imposed draconian controls on farmers having to monitor and manage their runoff.
Qld Labor will not win a single seat north of Bundaberg in the upcoming election. It will become like the Joh era gerrymandering with Labor holding onto power by outpointing LNP in the SE corner.
