Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to briefly talk about the Australian seafood industry, particularly professional fishermen and trawler operators within the Moreton Bay region, close to my electorate of Petrie. In December last year I had the chance to go out for a night on a trawler that operates in Moreton Bay. I want to thank Rick Morgan from Morgan Seafoods—a local retailer—for providing that opportunity for me. It was a really interesting night. I certainly learnt that professional fishermen and trawler operators work extremely hard, and I want to acknowledge all the trawler operators based out of Scarborough in my electorate and nearby in Sandgate as well, who also fish there. They do a wonderful job, providing Australian seafood to the local community.

I had the chance to go out on a boat called The Marvan, which was built in 1968. It was skippered by Ted Wodham and Mike Palframan. I spent the night fishing with these two men, and it provided me with a valuable insight into the industry. I learnt that    Moreton Bay is flourishing. The actual fishing in Moreton Bay as far as catches go with prawns is improving every year and bycatch is very limited. The nets that they use now are working extremely well. We went out at about five o'clock in the afternoon and came back at about seven o'clock the next morning. The nets were put out at about six o'clock at night and they were out for about two hours. At eight o'clock at night the nets were brought in, the catch was put into the sorting trays and the nets were immediately put back out while the three of us sorted through the catch. The catch included tiger prawns, king prawns and bay prawns.

As far as bycatch, there was very little. There were some crabs, which were let go and thrown off the side, and there was a small amount of fish—like whiting and flathead. But there were no turtles or large fish like snapper or anything like that. In fact, when the nets were pulled up, a pot of dolphins came up the back of the boat—they must be able to hear when the nets are pulled up—and they were just picking off the fish that were thrown back. It was an interesting night. It takes about an hour and a half or an hour and 46 minutes to go through the catch. By that time, two hours later, it is time to pull the next net in. They work really hard and I pay credit to them. It is a great industry and I would encourage young people who are interested in fishing and the outdoors to get involved with it and maybe get their skippers licence or become a deckhand. The money is quite good and, if you enjoy fishing, it is a good thing to do.

Unfortunately, there is red tape involved in this industry, which I want to briefly speak about. There are two areas of red tape which I particularly want to address. The captain, Ted Woodham, who owned the Marvan which I went out on, also had two other boats which he had licences for. The Marvan is a 45-foot boat. I found out that, if you have another boat licence that a younger operator might want to lease, it is very difficult to do that unless you have exactly the same sized boat. For example, if you have a fishing licence for a 45-foot boat and a younger operator who wants to get into the industry has a 40-foot boat, they cannot use that same licence in Moreton Bay. It is just unbelievable. Because their boat is five feet shorter, the licence cannot be used. It just sounds ridiculous. It is an area of red tape that needs to be addressed. The boat that I went out on, as I said before, was built in 1968. To build a new 45-foot trawler today would cost well in excess of $1 million. With rising diesel costs and wages and operators still getting the same price for prawns as they did 20 years ago, it is very difficult for them to go out and buy a new boat. That area of red tape in relation to the size of boats should be addressed.

The other area is bycatch. Small fish like whiting and flathead that are pulled up could be sold. They are dead when they are pulled up because they have been in the net for an hour or so being trawled. They are all thrown overboard. The dolphins of Moreton Bay are having a field day here. They get fed over at Tangalooma on Moreton Island and then they go out at night and scrounge round at the back of the trawlers. They are doing extremely well. I think there would be just a small amount of profit for the trawler fishermen if they could keep a small amount of bycatch, as in whiting and flathead. That would make sense to me. Unfortunately, as it is in Moreton Bay, it is a state government issue. I was planning to address this issue with the previous LNP state government, but we now have a new state Labor government in Queensland. I will be passing this input onto the state Labor members in my seat of Petrie, because it is certainly something that I would like them to address in order to make these professional fishermen a little more profitable and to encourage younger people to get into the industry.

I love to eat Australian seafood, and so do a lot of other people in the Petrie electorate. I was encouraged to hear that Moreton Bay is doing well. We do not want to buy all our seafood from Asian countries. I support aquaculture and I want to see that industry continue to grow, but we want to make sure that wild seafood is sustainable and that professional fishermen will be able to provide catches for Queenslanders like me and other Australians for a long time to come. Red tape in those areas is an issue.

The other area that state government needs to address is payroll tax. Payroll tax is a ridiculous tax. What sort of tax penalises you for employing new people? If you are a small business that turns over a couple of million dollars a year with, say, 14 staff—13 staff and you are on the cusp—and paying about $1 million in wages, there is no incentive for you to put on more employees and grow your business a little bit more because you will get hit with payroll tax. It is an area that really does need to be addressed. As I said before, I will be talking to the new state government and the state members in my area to address those red tape issues on the size of boats and being able to use a small amount of bycatch, and payroll tax. I note that the previous LNP government was planning to increase the threshold for payroll tax. It is still not good enough; it needs to go together. However, I hope the new Labor government will follow the LNP government and implement that as well.

Finally, I encourage everyone in the Petrie electorate to buy Australian seafood. I encourage you to buy Australian fish and prawns whether it is from a local retailer—like Morgans or Dutton seafoods at Woody Point; I know of another one at Gawain Road in Bracken Ridge—or even from Woolworths. They sell banana prawns and other seafood that is Australian caught. I encourage you to buy Australian seafood wherever you can. It is fresh, it is good quality and it certainly makes a big difference.

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