What impact has that 'controversial' $443m investment made to the Great Barrier Reef?

Good Weekend Talks

In this episode, we speak with Anna Marsden, managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Back in 2018, Marsden’s life changed overnight when she received news from then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull that the federal government was granting the foundation a record-breaking $443 million to help fortify the reef against the ravages of climate change.

It was a controversial decision – the foundation was then a relatively small Brisbane-based conservation organisation and Turnbull’s political opponents labelled it a “captain’s call” – but six years down the track, funding has been allocated for a host of coral-saving projects.

Marsden chats with Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe about what's been achieved to date, and the overall state of the reef following another bleaching event last summer, the fifth since 2016.

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