Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is shocking. On a very conservative estimate, that means some 78,000 illegal fishermen are coming here and fishing illegally. We, as the opposition, and the people of Australia—particularly Northern Australia—are supposed to congratulate this government because it wants to intercept some 4.62 per cent of the boats that are coming here illegally. We are supposed to congratulate the government because in 2005 there were 78,000 illegal fishermen coming here and now, as a result of this magnificent budget, there will be only 74,300 coming here—and that this is some huge improvement on the situation. These illegal fishermen are violating our sovereign territory, and it is an absolute disgrace.

It is true that our defence forces are very stretched. I will have an opportunity to talk about the redeployment of troops to East Timor, the additional troops that have already been redeployed to Iraq and the redeployment of troops to Afghanistan. I have nothing but admiration for our defence forces, particularly the serving men and women in those forces who do us so proud. But this is a responsibility that they cannot currently manage, and I cannot see any prospect in the near future that they will have any increased capacity to manage it. Again, as the member for Brisbane, the shadow minister for homeland security, has pointed out, deploying minehunters is singularly inappropriate.

Let us understand the character of the problem. Firstly, the government have what I and people in Northern Australia call a ‘catch, kiss and release’ policy. When they catch these vessels—and these are vessels that are catching our sharks and fish, raiding our reefs for trochus shells—they confiscate their equipment, the least expensive element on those boats, let them go free and say: ‘You naughty boys. Bye-bye; don’t you dare do it again.’ And, as the member for Lingiari has pointed out, one person has recently been caught who has made 103 trips to this country—has violated our sovereignty 103 times—and the government just do not care. They do not see it as a problem. It is a monumental problem.

The honourable member for Lingiari knows that only too well when talking about quarantine problems. The black stripe mussel infested Darwin Harbour. It cost $3 million just to rectify that problem. These vessels are landing on our coast. It is not as though they are being intercepted at sea or within the three-mile limit—they are landing. I will tell the House how these vessels operate as they get close to the coastline. They go up the tidal streams—which are largely uncharted—where our naval boats are not permitted to go. There are so many areas on our northern borders and the coast of Western Australia that are uncharted. They go up those tidal streams and they get into the mangroves. They stay there during the day, then they do their fishing at night.

I put a question on the Notice Paper: ‘How do you detect these 13,000 illegal fishing boats—wooden vessels—when they come at night-time? The government do not say, ‘We’ve got coastal surveillance.’ They say, ‘We have aeroplanes up there and at night-time they can pick them up.’  They cannot. Our normal radar and other detection devices will not pick up wood. So the very basis of the way we are operating allows these 78,000 illegal fishermen to remain undetected.

We are outraged on this side of the House about the problem. I notice the honourable member for Kennedy is in the chamber. He will be concerned about the pearling industry. Australia has the last wildlife pearling industry and it is performing superbly over in Western Australia. What will happen if it gets an infestation of black stripe mussel or any other matter brought in by these illegal fishers? It will be wiped out. We will not only wipe out something of great economic value and beauty in Australia, which provides for the livelihoods of many Australians, but we will wipe it out for the world, and this government does not seem to care.

On these boats they have chickens and birds. The biggest threat to Australia from avian flu comes from these 13,000 illegal fishing boats that are landing—not all of them but heaps of them—on our coast in uncharted waters where the Navy is not permitted to go. You cannot send a patrol boat up tidal creeks and rivers—that is where these vessels hide, that is where they camp and that is where they eat—because they cannot get there, nor can the minehunters. We all know that these illegal fishermen are getting on our reefs. They are taking trochus shells. Not only are they taking sized trochus shells but also they are taking all trochus shells and any other shells on the reef.

The Aboriginal communities that are spending their own money to reseed these reefs get not one dollar out of the environmental budget for the work they are doing, and shame on you, Parliamentary Secretary, and your government, for that. But what are we supposed to do—land a minehunter on top of the reef and blow it up and then ensure that the Indonesians cannot rip the reefs bare? Is this the operational theology behind having minehunters? You are grossly deceiving the people of Northern Australia and you are not doing enough. We have a significant problem. The only solution is not to place greater burdens on our already stretched defence forces who are performing so magnificently, but we do need a separate coastguard.

The people of Australia were outraged when the Chen Long was discovered—a Chinese mother ship with a huge amount of fish on board. What did the government do? It spent $348,000 of taxpayers’ money on the detention of Chen Long, ensuring that the refrigeration system did not collapse and that the 630 tonnes of reef fish found inside was not spoilt. Then what did we do with the Chen Long? We said: ‘Bye-bye. Take that valuable 630 tonnes of cargo and off you go.’

Now we have had another Chinese mother ship discovered in our northern waters. What are we going to do? Are we going to spend half a million dollars preserving that cargo and then say, ‘Bye bye, ta-ta, it doesn’t matter’? When the state fisheries departments have to close down fisheries because of the way they are being pillaged by these 78,000 illegal fishermen, I think it is a disgrace. Ordinary Australian fishermen who want to have a sustainable, long-term viable industry are being punished when they are doing the right thing. I say to the government: why won’t you stand up for Australian fishermen? Why won’t you stand up for the people of Northern Australia? Why won’t you do something to seriously tackle this absolute breach of our sovereignty? Well might the parliamentary secretary at the table smile, because, if there were this many illegal fishermen being sighted off Melbourne or Sydney, it would be a matter of utter outrage. The saddest and most distressing thing I find is that, when you speak to the people of Northern Australia—whether in Queensland, the Northern Territory or Western Australia—they think that the people of the eastern coast of Australia do not care.

I just want to finish on this note: these illegal shark boats usually trail two- or three-kilometre long-lines. I ask the parliamentary secretary: do you know what bait they are using? They are catching dolphins and cutting them up and using them as bait. You will often find that these fishing boats have a harpoon at the front. It is to catch and kill the dolphins. Mr Deputy Speaker, can you imagine how much dolphin bait goes on one long-line of three kilometres? I have seen these long-lines at Maningrida. The hooks are very long and very sturdy, and at about every metre there is another hook. Maybe I have got that wrong; maybe it is a bit more than a metre. But that is a lot of dolphins. And I think that people in Melbourne, in Sydney, in my electorate, in the electorate of Throsby and even in the electorate of Flinders would be very upset when they learn that this government is doing nothing to stop the slaughter of Australian dolphins in our northern waters, which are being used by these shark boats to catch sharks. If you like sharks—and I am not a great fan of sharks—they are being caught at such a rate that there is real concern about the ecosystem that sharks form a vital part of.

Whilst the opposition is supporting this bill, we believe that there is a problem in Northern Australia that requires a concerted, multidisciplined, multidepartmental approach. Just embedding in the Department of Defence a new unit for better cooperation will not provide the manpower, the resources or the vessels. Yes, I do support diplomatic efforts, but do not come back here trumpeting that a joint patrol between Indonesia and Australia is going to solve the problem when you know that any patrol is some years away and may in fact never happen. If you are so confident about how joint patrols are going to nip this problem in the bud, just share with us, in summing up this bill, when they are going to commence; how many Australian vessels will be involved; whether they will be patrol boats, minehunters—or destroyers, for goodness sake; what the Indonesian component will be; how many vessels they will be putting into these joint patrols; and how long they will patrol for and in what area. You cannot fool the people of Northern Australia. They know they have a major problem and they want much more action— (Time expired)

See this speech in context