Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad to speak to the motion about the importance of Australia's fisheries. I thank the member for Gippsland for bringing it forward. I represent a proud fishing community, a proud metro fishing community. A few weeks ago, I marched as part of the Blessing of the Fleet procession through Fremantle. It's one of the most important occasions on our annual calendar, an expression of our character and history. Of course, it's purpose is to pray for a safe and bountiful fishing season. There are two annual marches in Fremantle each year: the May Day march and the Blessing of the Fleet. Both have at their core the wellbeing of working people. The fact that the streets of Freo are consistently filled with community support on these occasions is testament to the deep commitment we have not only to the health and safety of all workers but especially to those who undertake inherently dangerous occupations, which is the case right across our maritime workforce.

In my community and throughout Western Australia, there's a strong value placed on our fishing industry not only for its economic value and diversity but also because it represents a form of maritime activity that has sustainability as one of its essential conditions. Like farmers, fishers know that, if you don't exist in harmony with the natural environment, there is no stability and no future beyond the medium term. In 2000, the West Coast Rock Lobster Fishery was the first in the world to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, and in 2022 it was recertified for a record fifth time. It is Australia's most valuable single-species wild catch fishery, involving more than 200 vessels and employing nearly 2,000 people. In 2019, the WA octopus and sea cucumber fisheries received MSC certification, and, now with 10 certified fisheries, Western Australia leads the nation when it comes to sustainable seafood industries. We should acknowledge and celebrate these important achievements.

The sustainability of fisheries is first and foremost a matter of environmental stewardship. It is our obligation to protect environmental conditions and biodiversity. Those things should be protected for their intrinsic importance, separate from our interest in them. But, of course, sustainability is critical to our wellbeing too because environmental degradation and overfishing will inevitably mean the end of fishing. On that front, the coalition should have the courage to undertake some self-reflection. They have consistently opposed measures like Labor's world-leading national network of marine protected areas. They have consistently worked to cut back and weaken those protections, just as they have turned a blind eye to the serious harm caused by the industrial-scale marine brutality of super trawlers.

The week before last, I was fortunate to visit the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. One of the result of their scientific work, matching the evidence we've collected here in Australia, is that marine sanctuaries help protect biodiversity and they result in healthier and more productive fisheries. We acted on that science in government, just as we are delivering a new Futures of Seafood project to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture in Australia can plan to thrive in the future.

The Albanese Labor government have already taken a number of key actions to protect the health of Australia's sustainable fisheries. For example, the Minister for the Environment and Water has tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park. We have increased funding for the Australian Institute of Marine Science. We have made sure that Australia is active in supporting international efforts like the 30 by 30 initiative that will ensure 30 per cent of the world's oceans are protected by 2030 while, at the same time, we seek to advance a treaty to protect the high seas and show leadership through Australia's membership to the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution addressing the scourge of ocean plastic. What's more, we have a process in train to look at how Australia can address illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries which endanger workers and damage global fish stocks and biodiversity.

As the member for Gippsland intimated, about 65 per cent of the seafood consumed in Australia is imported, and yet we have a seriously ineffective and opaque framework when it comes to preventing the importation of products from IUU fisheries in our region. While both the US and the EU have IUU protections, I was glad, in my former role in opposition, to include consideration of an IUU framework as part of Labor's policy commitment prior to the 2022 election. Now, that work is underway to figure out how we can apply a system that ensures Australian households can be confident that the seafood we consume comes from properly managed, sustainable and safe fisheries. This, of course, also means that Australian sourced seafood is not competing against product that is cheaper simply as a result of being dependent on environmentally harmful and unfair practices, including practices that constitute modern slavery.

If we care about fisheries and marine biodiversity, we need to keep supporting healthy, sustainable and high-quality industry in Australia while sharing the globally cooperative work to see more of our oceans protected and to identify and eliminate careless, destructive and cruel fishing practices elsewhere. That is precisely what the Albanese Labor government is doing. That has been our focus since we were first elected. That will continue to be our work in support of Australia's sustainable fisheries.

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