The purpose of the laws introducing caps is to deliver an environmental outcome – tightening caps is completely in line with that objective while loosening them is not.
However, this leaves open whether the improved environmental outcome has been "bought" at the expense of a reduction in the rate of economic growth.
Achieving the same result under a carbon tax approach would require government to intervene to lower the tax rate temporarily, which would be more complicated and produce a less desirable long term environmental outcome.
Reichelt said the authority's position has long been that a preferred environmental outcome for the Great Barrier Reef is that development should be restricted to existing ports and a focus be given to ensuring high environmental standards are in place.
Through the use of a unique paired-waterbody design, our dataset reduced the potential for confounding variables to impact our environmental outcome measurements.
However, achieving sustainable environment management seems remote, as our understanding of ecosystem response to human influence is insufficient to predict the environmental outcome of proposed development activities.
