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Agricultural industry groups have refused to show the Queensland government the results of a government-funded program that aims to improve the water quality of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Queensland Audit Office, in a report to parliament, said the agricultural industry groups had hidden data on the best management practices program because of "privacy concerns" and that its effectiveness could be "overestimated".
The report states that "despite significant efforts", the environmental management system was only taken over by 2% of farmers and 7% of sugar cane growers. These numbers are drastically below the 2018 target of 90% participation in the priority areas of the reef.
The government spent $ 9.2 million over two years to fund the voluntary program, which is administered by non-government farm groups. The ultimate goal is to prevent chemicals and sediments from entering the reef watershed.
The audit office raised the question of whether the success of the program could be properly measured because farm groups receiving government funding would not provide data on the actual improvement of producers' practices.
"This detailed information is currently held by industry groups," the report says. "Despite the fact that this work is funded by the government, the information is not provided to the government because of the privacy concerns of the industry …"
"These data restrictions mean that the government does not have complete visibility of the progress made and can not measure the degree of change in practice or evaluate the value obtained from its investment of public funds.
This means that the reported proportion of land managed according to best management practices may be overestimated.
The audit report indicated that the government was in the process of amending the law to ensure that minimum environmental standards were no longer voluntary. He stated that the voluntary approach had not achieved the water quality objectives.
The report also detailed how an increase in land clearing from 2015 could impact the quality of the reef water. The clearing of woody vegetation in the reef watershed increased by 50% in 2015-2016.
"In general, if clearing and any associated land-use changes expose and / or disturb the soil surface, the loss of water and sediment will likely increase depending on how the land is used and the practices employed. This could be detrimental to the achievement of objectives. "
The Queensland government has passed new laws that limit large-scale compensation earlier this year, in the midst of ferocious protests by farmers.
The Ministry of the Environment and State Sciences has accepted the recommendations of the audit report, and said it would seek to strengthen contracts to compel industrial groups to transmit data.
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