One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is copping flak for taking her senators to a healthy part of the Great Barrier Reef in an effort to disprove claims the icon is dying.
Ms Hanson donned a wetsuit and snorkel gear for her swim off Great Keppel Island on Friday, when she took aim at green groups for telling "untruths" about the reef's health.
![One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson (centre) listens to marine scientist Alison Jones as she displays a coral on the Great ...](/web/20161126180840im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/5/f/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsy4wm.png/1480130879298.jpg)
Senators Malcolm Roberts, who has long argued the case for global warming doesn't stack up, and Brian Burston joined Ms Hanson on the trip to support tourism operators by showing the world the reef is alive and well.
But the trip has been criticised by conservationists, who say Ms Hanson had taken her senators and the media to a healthy section of reef unaffected by unprecedented coral bleaching caused by high water temperatures.
![One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson snorkelling off the Great Barrier Reef.](/web/20161126180840im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/5/c/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsy4wm.png/1480130879298.jpg)
Instead, they said, the trip should have been to Lizard Island - more than 1000 kilometres away - where the severe coral bleaching begins.
"The trip is like taking journalists reporting on a conflict to a five-star holiday resort miles away from the actual war zone," the Climate Council's Professor Lesley Hughes said.
"We're happy to take the senators to an area actually affected by bleaching so they can see it for themselves."
Ms Hanson said that, although she wasn't an expert on the reef, she believed humans were not responsible for coral bleaching and the debate surrounding its health had to move past politics.
![One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson snorkelling off the Great Barrier Reef.](/web/20161126180840im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/5/c/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsy4wm.png/1480130879298.jpg)
She said agenda-driven groups telling "untruths" about the state of the reef were destroying the tourism industry and businesses.
"When we have these agendas that are actually destroying our tourism industry and businesses ... we need to ask the questions and we want answers," she said.
"The Greens have no concern about people and jobs that we need here in Queensland and the escalating costs that we are feeling from the effects of this."
Yeppoon-based ferry operator Max Allen said the public's perception of the reef's health had definitely had an impact on visitor numbers.
"People turn up and say, 'Why are we here, isn't it dying?'Â " he said.
Mr Allen said his Freedom Fast Cats operation was averaging 17 visitors a day despite having once averaged 200, but noted resort closures and competition had also hit numbers.
The Queensland and federal governments were also diving into the argument about the health of the reef on Friday, announcing they would be splashing $45 million on a program to improve water quality and reduce sediment run-off at the Great Barrier Reef.
The trip came as the government prepares to present UNESCO with an update on work being undertaken to address the reef's health.
Australia is relying on its Reef 2050 Plan to convince the UN agency to keep the Great Barrier Reef off its list of World Heritage sites in danger.
Senator Roberts said Australia should not be reporting on the reef to a UN agency, which had "fabricated" climate change.
AAP Â