Australia's Marine Park management has always been a contentious political issue and will remain so. Since the late 1960s, from the protest movement that led to the Royal Commission and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act (1975); crown-of-thorns outbreaks; the World Heritage listings of the GBR (1981), Lord Howe (1982) and Ningaloo (2011); revised and additional zoning plans (late 1990s onwards); managing back-to-back bleaching events (2016/2017 onwards), poor water quality, and more recently debates on funding and coral reef restoration. Understanding how the political landscape shapes marine park management is essential for marine scientists seeking real-world impact.
Yet today's political and regulatory landscape of the Reef is increasingly complex. Populist politics and polarisation around climate change, misinformation and disinformation, new restoration science and techniques, diverse funding sources, Traditional Knowledge systems, and divisive media dynamics have created challenging intersections between science, policy, and politics.
This paper examines how Australia's marine parks management is shaped by political, social and regulatory forces — and what that reveals about turning environmental conflict into consensus, from countering mis/disinformation and politicised science to reconciling Indigenous Lore with Western law and drawing on international precedent.
