Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Attorney-General, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:19): Thank you very much indeed, Senator Waters. It is a very important question you ask, and I acknowledge your deep interest in the issue. We know that the two biggest threats to the Barrier Reef are climate change and water quality. Reefs around the world have been impacted in recent months by a global coral bleaching event of unprecedented magnitude. The impacts of this event are of deep concern to the Australian government just as they are to the governments responsible for other World Heritage sites impacted by the coral bleaching event. The reef, however, is also showing resilience. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the best managed, most resilient coral reef ecosystems on the earth. Senator Ian Macdonald: Here! Here! Senator BRANDIS: I hear Senator Macdonald associating himself with that remark; nobody in this chamber today has had more to do with the Great Barrier Reef over his career in public life than Senator Ian Macdonald. A recent Australian Institute of Marine Science study found that the coral cover increased by 19 per cent across the marine park between 2012 and 2015, nearly doubling in the southern sector due to good early recovery from cyclones and floods. For visitors, the recent surveys show that there are still many reefs throughout the marine park that have abundant living coral, particularly in popular tourism locations such as the Whitsundays, Cairns and Port Douglas, and even further north. The Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan needs a strong bipartisan approach to achieve the goals we set ourselves. In the plan, the Australian government and the Queensland government have jointly committed to invest a projected $2 billion over the next 10 years, and the Commonwealth government welcomes the cooperation of the Queensland Labor government. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Waters, supplementary question.