Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the honourable member for Kennedy for his rather loud but I think very informative speech. There are probably not too many times that I am going to be in fierce agreement with the member for Kennedy but I am on this occasion and would like to echo his concerns that fences make good neighbours. I am speaking to the bill before us, the Fisheries Legislation Amendment (Cooperative Fisheries Arrangements and Other Matters) Bill 2005, which seeks to clarify certain things about the meaning of ‘economic efficiency objectives’ and also to insert an ecologically sustainable development principle consistent with the ESD principle contained in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. It also allows for amendments to the fisheries agreement to remain under the offshore constitutional settlements. While these are all good things and the Labor Party are supportive of them, they are irrelevant if we do not know what fishing catch is being taken out of our waters by illegal fishers. We are asking our fishing industry time and time again to reduce its catch to ensure that our stock is sustainable and to ensure that the biodiversity of our waters is maintained, and they are happy to do that.

I was in Broome last week meeting with the Western Australian fishing industries and with the many fishermen who are there. They were also meeting that day with various representatives of the state government to determine what their catch would be for the next year. They had agreed to take a reduction in their catch. As I say, they were happy to do that. It will cost them; it will hurt them in some regards, but they realise that if they do not have a sustainable catch they do not have a catch. It is fished out; it is no longer there. But they said, ‘Why are we taking a reduction time after time after time when we have no idea what the stock is because it is being raided and taken illegally, predominantly by boats coming down from Indonesia, and the government is doing nothing about it?’

It was fascinating at question time today that the foreign minister got up and said he had recently been to Indonesia to have talks about joint patrols with the Indonesian government. Funnily enough, the previous fisheries minister, Senator Macdonald, who has gone by the by because, I think, of his total lack of action with regard to illegal fishing, also said he had been off to Indonesia to have talks with the Indonesian government and they were going to have joint patrols. That is well and good. It is a long time overdue. Something should have been done. But it is not just about joint patrols. Where was the discussion about the MOU box off the northern coast and particularly off the top of the Kimberley? Where were the discussions about where that box begins and ends? The illegal fishers coming down from Indonesia are saying: ‘We were in the box. We thought we were in the right space.’ Where was the discussion that was needed about defining where that area is so that it is clear, or saying that it is time to renegotiate that whole thing, that it is no longer traditional fishermen coming in and out of our area? The illegal fishing operation coming into our waters is actually very commercial, very high tech and very well resourced. We can have these measures as introduced in this bill. We welcome them and they should be done, but they are totally and utterly irrelevant if we do not do something about people plundering our fishing stock illegally. They are continually coming down here and taking our fish and nobody is doing anything about it.

In Senate estimates last week we learnt that, in 2004, 9,600 boats were sighted. In 2005 that went up to 13,000—an increase of 35 per cent. And how many boats were picked up? Somewhere in the order of 400 to 600 boats were picked up. A fraction of the boats sighted are being picked up. A large number of those boats are, as opposed to being taken and destroyed, undergoing what is known as forfeiture. The boat is not taken and destroyed. Whoever has picked it up—be it Customs or the state fisheries—takes their fishing equipment and allows the boat to head on its merry way. Funnily enough, they probably head back to the mother boat, get another load of fishing gear and then go out plundering our waters. There are recidivists who are being seen coming in, time and time again, through the boats, by captain and crew. They are coming back to the Kimberley, back into Broome. Everybody is getting to know who these individuals are, but there is no database about who these people are. There is no consistency; there is no coordination.

This government can talk all it likes about sustainability, economic efficiency and biodiversity, but if it is doing nothing about the illegal fishing issue this will be meaningless. This will be completely and utterly meaningless.

Talking with the fishermen in Broome was very eye opening. Two things were clear. They want to preserve their industry. They love their way of life; they enjoy it. It is generally a family business, passed down from father to son—or, in some cases, from father to daughter—and on and on it goes. They enjoy what they are doing and on the whole they can make a livelihood out of it. But it is getting harder and harder, with the restrictions, with the cost of fuel et cetera. So they are worried. They want to maintain their industry; they want to do the right thing by their industry. But if the government is not doing anything to protect their industry they have no industry.

The other thing they are very concerned about is their own personal safety. Out at sea, it used to be a situation where it was all kind of nice. The Indonesians—the traditional fishermen—would come along. But it is all getting a bit aggro out there on the sea. One man said: ‘What is my legal requirement on a boat? Where do I stand in regard to my crew? What is the legality about safety for me and my crew in our workplace? Our workplace may be a boat in the middle of the ocean, but it is still our workplace. How do we protect ourselves?’

The majority of these boats out off the Kimberley and off the Northern Territory are fishing for shark. They are legally allowed to carry firearms. If you get a fairly large shark on board that has not died, the only way to deal with it is to shoot it, so they are all carrying firearms. It was constantly said to us when we were on this visit, to Broome, to Perth and then further up to One Arm Point, that it is not a matter of if an incident with a firearm occurs or if a tragedy occurs at sea; it is a matter of when that is going to occur at sea.

They are very nervous. They are very scared about an incident occurring. The illegal fishermen are getting more aggressive. They are getting better stocked and better equipped and they are becoming more protective of their catch and are set on not being caught. So we have got a whole lot of Australia fishermen at sea feeling very insecure and very vulnerable and worrying about their security and their livelihoods.

It was quite extraordinary that these individuals that we met in Broome were all trying, through their industry associations and their various networks, to do something to maintain their industry. But they also turned around and talked about what they could actually do for the Indonesians to ensure that they had livelihoods. They talked about aid programs and about discussions. But they wanted more action. They need to see more action from the government.

The Labor Party believes that this is such a serious issue that we have commissioned our own task force, because we just do not see the government doing anything about it. We have established the Labor caucus transport and maritime security task force. We are out there, we are listening and we are hearing.

Funnily enough, after we had left Broome the new minister in charge of fisheries, Senator Eric Abetz, turned up in town. There was a big fanfare—he was coming, all the press were very excited and they thought that an announcement was finally going to be made. Previously they had been told that the federal government was taking all the money out of the Kimberley, that they would lose the eight staff that the federal government is currently funding and that those staff would be transferred to Darwin—not all of them, but they were losing the funding for the eight staff. So the state fisheries body is now diverting its resources. The resources that would actually patrol things like the amount of catch and the biodiversity of the stock are now being diverted to doing the federal government’s task: patrolling the waters and catching the boats.

One of the biggest issues is that when the state fisheries, a local Aboriginal community or someone sights a boat they ring Canberra and say: ‘We’ve seen this boat. It’s sitting out there.’ Then there is a mad flurry of phone calls and nobody knows who is meant to do what, where or when. There might be a Navy boat in the waters, but their rules of engagement are so unclear that they do not know whether they should go and pick it up, shoot across the bow or do whatever. On the whole, it takes three days for someone to come out and check out the boat. Funnily enough, after the three days the boat has gone, and the boat has been so close to the shore that people in various communities have seen the boat. The issues are not then just about the plundering of the fishing stock; there are also great concerns about quarantine and the issues of communicable diseases coming to our shores.

One of the most fascinating sessions we had in Broome was with the AQIS officer, who went into great detail about what they have to do when they actually bring one of those boats to shore. It is an amazing process of fumigating, removing food, going through the water and taking out all the water, which is contaminated with dengue. There are dengue mosquitoes sitting in the water that is then brought to shore at the Kimberley. I am not sure whether anybody here knows someone who has had dengue fever—I do; it is a terrible thing. Why do we want this brought onto our shores? The fishermen were adamant, time and time again, that they were calling on the government to do something.

So we were in Broome and Senator Abetz turned up a couple of days later and talked the talk, but he did not walk the walk. He did not offer them anything: he made no announcements and no promises. He gave them false hopes that he would maybe call a national summit. There have been discussions throughout the state governments, particularly led by John Ford, the Western Australian minister who has a huge problem on his hands in his area. He has talked to his Northern Territory and Queensland counterparts about this issue because he cannot get anywhere with the federal government. So we have a situation where the state governments are trying to take the charge. They are actually funding the patrolling of their areas, funding the security of their industry and trying to talk about a coordinated approach.

Senator Abetz then went to the Northern Territory—our task force will be going there in a week or so too—to talk to the people there, including the Indigenous communities, who are being seriously impacted by these issues. He again talked the talk but did not walk the walk. He came back to Canberra and said, ‘No, there is no need for a summit; there’s no need to get anything together.’ Prior to his visit to Broome, the member for Kalgoorlie had to fly to Tasmania to meet with the minister to say, ‘Finally, can someone listen to this massive issue in our backyard?’ As we have heard time and time again, one of the issues was: ‘Do you think that if this were happening in Sydney Harbour people would care? Is it because it’s happening at the far end of the Kimberley, at the top of Darwin and way off the top of Queensland that nobody cares? If it were over in the east, do you think people would care and worry about us? Do you think it’s because we’re not a big, sexy and viable industry that they just don’t care?’ This is an issue that is growing. It is a huge issue and it is destroying the livelihoods of so many people and more needs to be done by this government. They are sitting on their hands. The previous minister sat on his hands.

It is a tragedy today, when we have this bill before us talking about fisheries, that not one government member sees fit to speak to the bill. Not one government member has come down to talk about the fishing industry. The fishing industry operates probably more predominantly in the seats of coalition members. Where is the member for Kalgoorlie? Where is the member for Solomon? Where are they talking about their industry and the protection of that industry? I would like to know.

The task force also went to a place called One Arm Point, where I, the member for Chifley and one of our esteemed colleagues in the other place, a senator from WA, met with the phenomenal Bardi community who are operating out of One Arm Point. They are truly in the middle of nowhere. It is incredibly hot but it is one of the most stunning and magic places I have ever seen. Instead of meeting an Aboriginal or Indigenous community ground down by CDEP and ground down by their circumstances, this is a community who wants to look after themselves and are doing everything they possibly can to become self-sufficient.

They are doing everything they possibly can to provide for their community and for future generations. They have turned back to their traditional areas. They have turned back to what they always did, which was fishing, harvesting and collecting a thing known as a trochus shell. I am terribly sorry that I do not have my trochus shell with me, because I have to say that it is the most stunning thing I have ever seen. It is a beautiful thing. The trochus is generally harvested and then sold to be made into buttons—something like pearl buttons. Predominantly, the catch from One Arm Point is shipped to Italy. Last year they made $85,000. That might not sound a lot to us, but for a remote Indigenous community it was an enormous amount of money. And they did that off their own bat—without any support.

They are hatching the trochus on shore, so they are creating and regenerating their reef, which has been plundered by the Indonesians. The Aboriginal community up there has put a limit on their catch so that they will not destroy their reef. They have a limit on bag catch, a limit on size of shell and a limit on what they do. They are very responsible about this. They harvest their own shell and then go out and reseed the reef. But what do they find? When they get out there, they discover the whole lot has been plundered again by Indonesian fishermen—the whole lot has been taken. That is theft, by anyone else’s standards. If it were happening in our backyard, we would be jumping up and down in outrage. But, because it is a remote Aboriginal community, it seems that nobody cares. These people have spent an enormous amount of time, energy and heartache to produce this beautiful trochus and create an industry that is sustainable. They want to take control of their own destiny, get off CDEP and move to where they are sustainable. They want to be able to go to the bank and say, ‘Lend us the money, because we’ve got a viable business and we want to do it.’ But we are not protecting these shores, these waters or their livelihood.

To understand this situation, one needs to know that the trochus must be collected. You have to get onto a reef, get down on your hands and knees or swim around and snorkel. So the boats from Indonesia must actually land on our shores. They are landing on our reefs. That is how close they are getting. Twenty-five people at a time get off, harvest the trochus and get back on the boat—but they stay there for a couple of days. So they arrive on our shores, in Australian waters, and plunder the livelihood of the Bardi community. They are also bringing with them their diseases and their food—which may have other diseases—and we do not care. We have done nothing about it. The minister has done some gladhanding and the previous minister did some burning of boats and did a bit of media, but we have not actually seen any action. We have seen nothing concrete take place—and we have this enormous increase in boats coming to our shores.

To give you an idea of the cost of this, a recent report by the Western Australian government says:

The increasing number of incursions, combined with the growing marketability of key target species (mostly sharks for fins) points to a highly organised commercial system. Heavy fishing pressures and the loss of marine habitats in Indonesian waters have made fishing in the AFZ increasingly attractive. Returns from illegal fishing are high when compared to those available to villagers in eastern Indonesia.

With a ‘beach price’ return on catch of about $120AUD per kilogram for shark fin, only about 5 kilograms is required to cover the costs for a fishing trip (generally one large shark). In general, this can easily be achieved in the first day of fishing. The replacement cost of a boat by an indentured fisherman (approximately $5,000AUD), should the fisherman be unlucky enough to get caught and lose the boat, is the equivalent of 40 kilograms of dried shark finance at ‘beach’ prices. High quality fin is on-sold by owners for $250AUD per kilogram (wholesale) so for them the replacement cost of a boat is 20 kilograms of shark fin.

So you are talking about big money. We are talking about big, organised money. If the poor villagers from Indonesia who come on these boats are taken and, in some cases, put in jail here for six to 12 months or put in camps and deported, it does not hurt the organised criminals. Nor does it hurt the people who have created these boats. We were given examples of one fishing village in Indonesia where 20 of these boats are turned out each day. They just keep producing them.

Recently, a very large vessel, the Chang Long, was taken in Indonesia. It was a large vessel with ice on board, what they refer to as a ‘mother boat’. It was a very large boat sitting in the middle of the water and the smaller boats would come to it. We are talking about organised criminal activity. We are talking about fishermen losing their livelihoods because the Australian government is doing nothing about this organised crime.

It is all very well for the foreign affairs minister to state in question time today that he has gone and had a chat with his counterpart in Indonesia about patrols. What is he doing about having a chat about the illegality of the syndicates in Indonesia? Where is he having the discussions about the illegality of these boats coming to our shores? They seem to have been able to have a chat when illegal people smugglers were coming in—they seem to have done a lot about that—but they do not seem to be caring about the people within the fishing industry.

Whilst Labor is supporting this bill today because it does go a way to protecting the viability of the fishing stock and our biodiversity, if we are doing nothing about the incursion of illegal fishing then why bother? In some respects, why bother? As the fishermen in Broome said: ‘We can reduce our stock and we can do all the right things, but if somebody else is coming and taking it illegally we have no way of protecting that. We have no way of controlling that. Our livelihood has gone and we have borne the pain for no reason.’ So while this bill will help in some measure, unless something is done about illegal fishing it is pointless. (Time expired)

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