Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that the minister is at the table to hear my contribution—

Mr Burke interjecting—

And what a contribution it will be, I hear him say. I would like to share with the minister and the House a couple of really interesting quotes:

Australia has a great record for when it comes to the sustainability of our fisheries, and these reports —

and I will refer to the reports in a minute—

are a fantastic information base for governments, researchers, fishers, industry and the community to work from to make sure that remains the case.

The person speaking says:

Fishing is a big part of Australian culture and is an important local industry for many communities around our coastline.

Those words are from the agriculture minister, Senator Joe Ludwig, and these are part of the first international snapshot of fish stocks, which was released on 11 December last year. More than 80 of the country's leading fisheries, researchers from Australian state and territory governments and research agencies collaborated to produce the reports, which assessed 49 species representing more than 80 per cent of the value and 70 per cent of the volume of Australian wildcatch fisheries. I am sure the minister is well aware of the reports to which I am referring. Of the 49 key wildcatch fish species selected, 150 stocks were assessed and 98 were classified as sustainable stocks. Only two stocks were classified as overfished and these have management plans in place for their recovery.

That is the first lot of quotes I would like to share with you. The second is another interesting one which I am sure the minister would also be well aware of:

We are a great food-producing nation and the old phraseology is that we could be the food bowl for Asia. That's an idea that's been around for a long time, but we can make that a reality. There are already seven billion people on earth and another two billion to be added by 2035 … in addition to that big increase in population the rising middle classes of Asia are demanding more high-protein foods. And for Australia that means more beef, more sheep meat and more dairy products.

Those words were uttered on 13 March last year by the trade minister, Craig Emerson.

Tonight, we are talking about a disallowance motion of the six management plans introduced into the House of Representatives and Senate on 12 March this year. The management plans are as follows: Coral Sea, North Commonwealth, North-West Commonwealth, South-east Commonwealth, South-west Commonwealth and Temperate East Commonwealth Marine Reserves. This is the second disallowance motion I have spoken to in recent months. The minister would be well aware of the last disallowance motion I spoke on because that was to disallow the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

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