Greens Senator for Queensland Andrew Bartlett says Malcolm Turnbull’s pledge of millions of dollars to protect the Great Barrier Reef is a wasteful publicity stunt aimed at distracting attention away from those who continue to put the Reef at risk.

“The real beneficiaries of this blatant publicity stunt are the fossil fuel giants and their Liberal Party mates who will continue to go about their business as usual - certainly not the Reef or the public, who are footing million dollar bills for wasteful projects that are doomed to fail.

I would like to speak tonight about some recent data that, once again, demonstrate just how much our economy and political system are rigged in favour of the wealthy and the well-off. This latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show how much the discredited, so-called trickle-down system of economics—that puts markets before people and that has been promoted by both parties of the Establishment—has failed the majority of the community.