Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I take back the implied criticism of the member for Paterson because I am very pleased to hear him say that. But the complete destruction of the fishing industry and the prawn and fish-farming industries was done by the LNP. A Nationals party member got up and said that all you are leaving us is 18 per cent of the North Queensland seas.

An opposition member interjecting —

He said, 'a good Labor man'. I will tell you, my friend, that when I come into this place I represent the people of my electorate, and I could not care less whether it is the Labor Party or the Liberal Party. But you will have to stand and defend your party's decision to close two-thirds of the fishing industry of North Queensland and take 2,000 people's jobs out from under them. The minister might today be doing a little bit of fence building and face-saving before the election, but we will see how you vote when I move the resolution that it be cut back to one-quarter of its existing area. We will see how you vote. I welcome your support, but I doubt I will get it.

There were 7,000 people who turned up to the meetings. I heard the Liberal member advocating the closures, and the National Party member for Dawson had gone completely silent upon the issue. Before an election you were out there saying how terrible the Labor Party is. Unfortunately—and sadly for you, my friend the honourable member for Dawson—you will be judged upon the performance of your party, which closed the fishing industry of North Queensland. And not content with that, they proceeded to close the prawn and fish-farming industries.

I will stand by my record. The Courier-Mail, in a front-page article on me as the minister for northern development, said, 'Since you became the minister for northern development there has not been one single square inch of North Queensland declared a national park.' I said, 'Could you please put that on the front page of your newspaper and watch the ALP savage me over it!' Every time they savage me I hope and think that my fellow North Queenslanders will take a position and say, 'Good on you!' So I will stand on my record, my friend. But, unfortunately for you, you have to stand on the record of your party—and the record of your party smells to the high heavens.

And if someone is out performing—and I think that the federal government is performing on this issue, just grandstanding before an election—at the expense of my fishermen in the Gulf of Carpentaria and at the very great expense of the fishermen in the Gulf of Carpentaria, they have already done colossal damage to them. One of the remaining fishermen there has just said: 'I am going to throw the towel in, mate. If they don't get me now, they will get me later on.' He said this on the John McKenzie program in North Queensland.

We watched as Australia very proudly exported $300 million or $400 million of seafood product more than we imported. But thanks to the actions of the free marketeers and to the free-market policies of the two parties that dominate this parliament, and thanks to the closures of the Liberal Party—the Labor Party were not there but I am sure that they would have done it if they had been there; I do not have any illusions that the ALP would have done if they were there; but the Labor Party was not there and the Liberals were—they did the damage.

Let me just go back to the seafood figures. There are about $300 million more in exports and imports. I think this year it will be $200 million more imports and exports. You could draw a graph. You could talk to Alistair Dick, who is the leading authority probably in prawn farming in Australia. I rang Alistair and I said, 'I am looking at these figures from China on prawn farming and fish farming.' If you extrapolate them out—and the graph is almost vertical—then I would say that within about 40 years all of the world's protein will be coming from China. There will not be any moo-cows walking around or piggy-wiggies or chickens or anything like that. I am not saying that the graph will continue to be vertical, but at the present moment it is.

As a minister I was given great credit for founding that industry and most certainly we played a key role. Dr Joe Baker from the Institute of Marine Science and those great heroes—the Wardays, the Sharkers, Jimmy Riles, the Irwin Viadors—and many others were the people that risked their money and pioneered this industry and created for Australia some $600 million a year of income. Now I think that our prawn production is down to about $20 million and I cannot see the industry lasting much longer.

We have got to clean the water four times thanks to the environmentalists on both sides of this parliament. We have got to clean the water arguably four times, most certainly three times, before we put it back into the river system or into the sea. Whereas our competitor nations put raw sewage into the Yangtze River and all the other rivers up there. They just pump the water out of the river into the ponds and then dump it straight back in. We just simply cannot compete against that sort of practice.

All right, if you say that it is fair enough to impose those conditions upon Australian farmers, do not let the product in from the countries that are not measuring up to those environmental and health requirements. If you put raw sewage into water that goes into the ponds then you have a very high bacteria level and what you then have to do is to kill the bacteria. So you need a very high antibiotics regime. So the prawn and fish farming product coming in here is rife with bacteria and rife with antibiotics. But there is no labelling. It would be interesting to see whether the honourable members on my right will vote for the labelling laws. I will leave it to them to explain to the growers of Bundaberg and Bowen and all of those other areas why they are not voting for labelling laws. If you are going to let this product come in, at the very least you should be warning consumers that it is coming in and it has not been grown or processed under Australian conditions.

I applaud the LNP for moving this resolution. I applaud them but I have got to point out to the House the overwhelming hypocrisy of their actions as most of them were here when the marine parks were declared. They declared them. They voted for them. They created the marine parks. It is a weird situation.

A very good friend of mine, a very famous North Queenslander, was out with his grandson. He used to go out with his dad when he was young bloke—his dad migrated from Italy about 70 or 80 years ago—and they had been going out fishing there for nigh on 70 or 80 years. A helicopter came down and he waved to it, as he is a very friendly bloke—I do not think that he has ever got a parking ticket in his life. Then the helicopter took off and a police boat came out. He said good day to the police and asked whether they would like a stubby with him—a very friendly bloke—and they said, 'We are here to arrest you. You have gone into a green zone.' The green zones were created by the Liberal Party and the National Party.

Mr Entsch interjecting—

No, you will cop it, my friend! It is your hypocrisy and you will sit there and you will cop it. You voted to impose upon North Queensland the closure of all of those areas.

Mr Entsch interjecting—

You voted to impose that upon all of those areas.

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