Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, has released an Assurance Statement for the development of the 2022 Scientific Consensus Statement (SCS) on land-based impacts on Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem condition.

The Chief Scientist’s role was to provide oversight and assurance of the process used to develop the 2022 SCS, and specifically, to identify, recommend and support process enhancements that would increase transparency, accountability and confidence in the findings and conclusions of the SCS.

Key observations from the assurance process: 

• The processes used to develop the 2022 Statement met the highest standards of academic evidence synthesis. 
• The research papers that informed the conclusions were assessed against standardised academic metrics for research quality.
• The approach documents deliver on the commitment to transparency and accountability. 

The Assurance Statement provides further detail about the Chief Scientist's assurance role and the recommended process improvements. 

Download the Assurance Statement:

2022 Scientific Consensus Statement on land-based impacts on Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem condition: Australian Chief Scientist Assurance Statement [PDF]

2022 Scientific Consensus Statement on land-based impacts on Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem condition: Australian Chief Scientist Assurance Statement [DOCX]