‘Tonightly’ Has Savaged The Government’s Dodgy Reef Grant In A Scathing New Sketch

The team at Tonightly have heaped scorn on the government’s decision to give a massive environmental grant to a group with ties to the mining industry, airing a scathing Shark Tank parody titled Dead Shark Tank.

As you’re probably already aware, Malcolm Turnbull has been copping a lot of flak in recent days for giving a staggering $443 million to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Not that critics are opposed to protecting the reef. Rather, they’re just not convinced that an organisation whose board includes former executives from BHP, Origin Energy and GE Mining are the right folks for the job — particularly given there wasn’t even a tender process.

The Tonightly sketch stars Greta Lee Jackson and Paul Michael Ayre as government investors taking submissions from various environmental organisations. The pair quickly shut down applications from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the Climate Council — “I’m not a huge fan of the whole proper application process being followed,” remarks Jackson. But they perk right up when the representative from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation arrives.

“Our chairman’s panel does include executives from BHP, Shell and Peabody Energy, so a lot of people whose main priority definitely isn’t the reef,” he tells them.

“Now I’m interested!” says Ayre. “Tell us more about this plan that you haven’t written down that doesn’t exist in any public records.”

“Well our chairman is the former managing director of Esso, so trust me when I say we more than anyone know about the impact of fossil fuels on climate change,” the rep says.

“Wait, are you telling me this company is actually going to do something about mitigating the use of fossil fuels in Australia?” asks Ayre.

“Oh no. We just know about the impact,” comes the reply.

You can watch the full sketch below.