Queensland farmers are saving up to $12.5 million in unnecessary nitrogen fertiliser costs under laws to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Premier Anna Bligh on Thursday tabled in parliament a statement on the impact of recent reef regulations, which showed the annual run-off of fertiliser nitrogen was likely permanently reduced by 14 per cent, or 2500 tonnes.
This represented an average saving of $6000 for each canegrower.
A $50 million, five-year Queensland Reef Protection Package was introduced in 2009 to reduce pesticide and fertiliser pollution by 50 per cent by 2013, and sediment pollution by 20 per cent by 2020.
The regulation required more than 4000 canegrowers, covering nearly 300,000 hectares, to test soil before planting and apply no more than the optimum amount of fertiliser.
Research was also conducted to improve farm profitability.
Ms Bligh said farmers had been largely compliant.
'This is good for the reef and good for the farmers,' Ms Bligh told parliament.
'Farmers and industry deserve credit for their efforts.' The Queensland Greens say although the state is making progress with fertiliser and pesticide run-off, a massive dredging project for the CSG industry off Gladstone is the biggest threat facing the reef.
Around 46 million cubic tonnes of material is being dredged from the seabed to prepare for the construction of two liquefied natural gas plants and export hubs at Curtis Island, as well as the expansion of the Gladstone port.
Environmentalists say the dredging can be linked to a spate of turtle and dugong deaths, and disease outbreaks in harbour fish.
Greens spokeswoman Libby Connors says it's strange the government would boast about its reef management when UNESCO had requested it cease destructive port development activities in Gladstone a few months ago.
'It is extraordinary that the premier should seek to take any credit given the damage inflicted on parts of the reef this year,' she said in a statement.
