Reef protection laws pass despite industry attacks on their scientific basis

Queensland's government will limit the agricultural pollution harming the Great Barrier Reef

The Queensland government has passed new regulations to limit agricultural pollution damaging the Great Barrier Reef in the face of a hostile campaign that has sought to discredit consensus science.

On Tuesday the state made relatively minor commitments to agricultural groups, including an undertaking not to vary new limits for farm sediment and chemical runoff into reef catchments for at least five years.