The Courier Mail says you “waged a jihad against Queensland”

This is unbelievable, NEVILLE.

In an extraordinary attack yesterday, the Courier Mail named GetUp amongst the “kings of deceit and lies” with “cult-like zealotry” for our efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef.¹

It’s part of the Murdoch press’ ongoing transparent and desperate bid to convince investors to finance Adani’s huge new coal expansion on the Reef coast.

On Friday the UNESCO World Heritage Committee handed down it’s report card for the Reef. Althought the Reef wasn’t classified as ‘in-danger’, it’s so far from the “clean bill of health” the Courier Mail writes of. UNESCO makes clear the Reef’s health is poor, and declining because of climate change, water quality and coastal development.²

Simply put, the Murdoch press is trying to hijack UNESCO’s report and mislead investors to believe the Abbot Point coal terminal will be harmless for the Reef.

With the Courier Mail in all-out attack mode, there’s a real threat they will convince key investors to fund Abbot Point and the devastating destruction it will cause.

We can’t let them get away with it.

We’ve designed a huge full-page ad with UNESCO’s own words to run in the financial press to set the record straight. Can you chip in to run the ad as soon as possible?

The Courier Mail and Enviornment Minister Greg Hunt seem to be conveniently forgetting that the report names “climate change, poor water quality and impacts from coastal development” as major threats to our Reef.

Climate change. Water quality. Coastal development. Doesn’t sound like much of a reason to dredge in Reef waters so hundreds of ships can load coal from a huge port on the Reef coast to make way for Australia’s biggest coal mine, does it?

But if the Murdoch press and Minister Hunt get their way, key investors could believe that all is well with the Reef, taking the Abbot Point disaster one step closer to devastating our Reef and climate.

We know Minister Hunt is desperate to control this message. That’s why he spent over $100,000 travelling to 15 countries to plead with UNESCO delegates not to list the Reef as ‘in-danger’.

But we can fight back against the Government and Murdoch’s spin by using our combined power to run a powerful message targeting key investors.

Click here to see the design and chip-in so we can run this ad in Australia’s financial press: https://www.getup.org.au/unesco

Together we’ve fought so hard to protect the Reef from Abbot Point and Adani. We’ve funded legal challenges, exposed Adani’s track record, we’ve challenged three Environment Ministers and we’ve changed the course of a State Election. Now, we’re up against an angry Murdoch press.

Let’s do this.

Sam R and Adam – for the GetUp team

[1] Editorial: The green movement’s role in the sorry Reef debacle exposes them as frauds, Courier Mail, May 31st 2015
[2] Great Barrier Reef kept off UNESCO ‘danger’ list for now, Reuters, May 29th 2015