Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Declared Fishing Activities) Bill 2012. I would like to commence by making a couple of observations about the nature of the debate this morning, particularly regarding the contributions from those opposite. Here we have a situation that involves fishing and a fishing industry that is vital to Australia's biodiversity. We have, watching from the sidelines, five million recreational fishers, who understand very clearly that a vessel of this size is untested in our waters. Yet, despite that uncertainty, the widespread concern in the community and a lack of good evidence, those opposite stand up and say, with their arrogance, that we should push on regardless. This seems to be a bit of a problem for the Liberal Party and those opposite. Just this week we have seen the same sort of arrogance where the Premier of Queensland, Campbell Newman, attempted to lecture the mining industry, by saying that they needed to change their workplace practices. Even Clive Palmer bit back at that one.

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