Dear Karl, might it have been appropriate to mention that @GBRFoundation (Goldman Sachs ex colleagues)has been a TODAY show event sponsor? There is some strength in old principles.

Great Barrier Reef Foundation managing director Anna Marsden at Hamilton Island. Picture: Lachie MillardSource:News Corp Australia

The foundation’s chairman’s panel includes the CEOs of companies such as BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Deloitte Australia, Lendlease and Deutsche Bank as well as representatives from Rio Tinto, Shell, AGL and Peabody Energy.

Confidentiality clauses may also stop taxpayers from ever finding out how fundraising money was spent and Mr Burke described the clauses as more strict than what applied to Cabinet papers, which are only confidential for 20 to 30 years.

“This is effectively the privatisation of a large chunk of the public service — but doing so in a way that just adds to administrative costs,” Mr Burke said.

Following the new system, if the government-funded CSIRO wanted to do specific research on the reef, it would now have to go to a private foundation, run by banking and mining executives, to ask permission to get taxpayer money.

There are also concerns about how effective the foundation has actually been in raising money.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/karl-stefanovic-in-stoush-over-support-for-great-barrier-reef-foundation/news-story/0e4651abe719068fdf3222cf11e2bc38