George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

They do not even want to know the difference. Information about the potato cod tabled or not, we know that these guys are prepared to mash the recreational and commercial fishing industry. They do not know fish, they do not know fishing, they do not know boats—unless they are full of illegals! We have the environment minister out there trying to sell the Coral Sea lockout, saying, 'Mums and dads are not going to take their tinny 300 kilometres out to sea.' Most of them do not take tinnies anywhere. If the environment minister took the time to go and look in the Mackay marina, for instance, he would not find tinnies docked there but very sophisticated and expensive craft that are capable of going out on five-day fishing trips, out beyond 300 kilometres. In North Queensland we have charter fishing companies that every day take people out to iconic and remote fishing locations for days at a time—places like Marion Reef, which Labor is going to shut down under these marine parks. If the environment minister consulted with the fishing industry he would know that, but instead he is too busy sending away to the Acme Company for the latest contraption to catch the latest roadrunner that the Greens are telling him to catch. Just like Wile E. Coyote, everything Labor has touched ends in disaster.

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