Pauline Hanson visits healthy reef to dispute effects of climate change

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been ridiculed for visiting a healthy section of the Great Barrier Reef while denying the effects of climate change.

Senator Hanson and other One Nation senators donned wetsuits, snorkels and masks for a tour of the reef in a show of support for Queensland's tourism industry.

Senator Hanson disputed claims from the world's leading scientists that the reef experienced its worst ever bleaching event in 2016.

She said the publicity surrounding bleaching events was hurting the tourism industry.

"If you actually go deeper, 12-20 metres deeper in the ocean, the reefs there are in pristine condition," she said.

"And they're growing all the time."

Senator Hanson is also not convinced that global warming contributed to this year's bleaching event that wiped out about 22 per cent of the reef's coral.

"We can't have these lies put across by people with their own agendas," she said.

But the section of reef they visited was off the coast of Rockhampton in central Queensland, about 1,000 kilometres south from where a serious bleaching event occurred near Lizard Island.

The WWF's Richard Leck said Senator Hanson and One Nation appeared to be on a voyage of climate change denial.

"I suggest to the senators that they actually get to a place that did bleach," he said.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society's Imogen Zethoven said One Nation is in denial about the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

"I'd really ask her to get off the SS Ignorance and come back to shore," she said.

"Head up to Port Douglas or Lizard Island see what it really looks like right now and accept that climate change is real, it's having an effect on the reef."