The most powerful Liberal/National politician in the country, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, has made a sequence of decisions that indicate he is an excellent caretaker of damaging Labor laws and policies, especially those related to agricultural industries.

He has refused a minimalistic request to commence audits of science evidence behind environmental regulations that are crucifying farmers and fishermen. By doing so, he tacitly accepts the Labor/Green presumption that Queensland primary industry is killing the Great Barrier Reef, destroying our rangelands and native fauna, and desecrating our fisheries and forests.

Mr Crisafulli had an opportunity to carry out due-diligence science audits shortly after coming to power two years ago. The previous Labor government, in cahoots with the Albanese government, had decided to shut down the entire southern Gulf of Carpentaria Barramundi fishery to ‘protect’ the Great Barrier Reef. This was ridiculous. The Southern Gulf is 700 kilometres from the reef and on the wrong side of Cape York. It was a prime candidate for a science audit, and Crisafulli could have delayed the closure, and made an audit happen.

But Labor wanted the Barramundi closure. So did the Greens and UNESCO. The science institutions wanted it too.

Mr Crisafulli complied.

Recently, there has been a request by Bundaberg farmers to check the science behind why the previous Labor state government slammed the region with stringent ‘Reef- Regulations’.

Local rivers the Burnett and Mary enter the ocean well south of the reef, and the colossal East Australian Current – hundreds of thousands of times bigger than the rivers – take water south away from the reef. Prima facie, it is hard to see how the Mary Burnett region, including Bundaberg, affects the reef.

Mr Crisafulli was not being asked to remove the regulations on this region; he was being asked only to commission an audit of the science in the newly established Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC). It was such a small and reasonable request by farmers from one of Australia’s premier food-bowl regions.

But Mr Crisafulli refused and stuck with Labor policy.

He then proudly announced another $330 million to fund ‘science’ and management organisations to ‘save’ the reef. But not a cent to audit them.

I estimate that every year around $400 million is spent on the GBR, and costs to industry are likely four times more. This for an ecosystem that, for 60 years, has defied the insistence of the ‘science’ organisations that it will soon be dead. Why so much cash when the reef has recorded more coral in all the past five years than in any of the previous 35 years since records began?

One has to wonder if Crisafulli is on the side of our farmers or the bloated bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the reef being in a continuous state of near-death. Following the cash seems to indicate he is not on the side of the farmers.

This pointless spend is occurring in a state that is heading for another credit-rating downgrade, and with a government that touts its fiscal responsibility, and determination to reduce red-tape.

It is not as though Mr Crisafulli does not know there are problems with the entire rationale of many environmental regulations. Mr Crisafulli acted when the Albanese government recently expanded the misnamed ‘Nature Positive’ legislation, which means that farmers will have to ask permission from the federal government for many routine farm operations.

He referred Albo’s legislation to be scrutinised by the same Queensland Productivity Commission that the Bundaberg farmers had requested do science audits. The Crisafulli government was quick to blame Albo for over-zealous environmental regulations – federal regulations that the state government cannot change.

It was mere political theatre. When it comes to state regulations that Mr Crisafulli can actually change, it is my opinion that he doesn’t lift a finger and instead continues to implement Labor/Green policy.

One has sympathy for why Mr Crisafulli seems afraid of ‘science’ institutions. They have incredible political power and are happy to beat up a government when their funding is at risk.

But voters can see that checking the science is entirely reasonable, just like financial audits.

Even Nationals Leader Senator Matt Canavan has recently stated his support for the concept of science checking. And Mr Crisafulli’s intransigence – could affect Senator Canavan’s own election prospects.

Queensland is home to Pauline Hanson, and One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has come out strongly in favour of science checking. It will be easy for One Nation to point out that Mr Crisafulli is great at nurturing Labor/Green laws.

If the Liberals are presently leaking votes to One Nation in Western Australia and Victoria, wait until the Queensland state election.

Peter Ridd is Chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation