MEDIA RELEASE: GBRF KNOWS HOW TO SPLASH ITS CASH – AND IT’S NOT ON THE REEF

For months the Government has been claiming the reason it gave nearly half a billion dollars to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, rather than using the normal Government agencies, was because the Foundation has a unique capacity to leverage private investment. It has now emerged exactly how the foundation goes on to spend the money that it has leveraged.
 
“over three days at a luxury island resort where private villas cost more than $2000 a night…Private sector leaders and chief executives were treated to a snorkelling excursion and a beach bonfire in a “unique education program” at Qualia on Hamilton Island in May.” – Daily Telegraph 14 August 2018
 
Leveraging private investment doesn’t mean that that money goes back to the Reef, some of it has been going straight to island trips for the donors.
 
Despite claims of due diligence, the Government still doesn’t know how much money has been privately leveraged. Josh Frydenberg in different interviews has claimed the Foundation has raised $80 million, $65 million, and $60 million. The Foundation itself uses a different figure altogether.
 
We now know how some of that money was spent, and it wasn’t on the Reef. The program for the Qualia trip is attached.
  
TUESDAY, 14 AUGUST 2018