Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gippsland for moving this important motion to the House. This motion is in response to the disastrous decisions that the Albanese Labor government keeps making about the Australian commercial fishing industry, decisions that are causing catastrophic damage for our fishers and for our communities. The Australian commercial fishing industry is world-class and that's a fact. It is sustainable. It's backed by science. It contributes to our national food security and delivers crucial economic and employment benefits, particularly in regions such as my electorate of Dawson.

I've stood before in this very room talking about the dire consequences of the Labor government's irrational decisions, and I'm back here again today because voices are just not getting heard. The voices of so many in North Queensland are just not getting heard. The commercial fishing industry in Australia is highly regulated to ensure sustainable resource management. The industry has more regulations imposed than most. Fishermen and women have to check in every night. They have to have their logbooks up to date and are constantly checked. They are constantly monitored via government GPS tracking systems and operate under a quota system. And still—still!—the Albanese Labor government and the Minister for the Environment and Water want to make it even worse for our hard-working Aussies.

Earlier this year, the Minister for the Environment and Water announced a ban on commercial gillnet fishing in North Queensland, an announcement that was made with no scientific reasoning, without consultation and not even discussed with the individuals and families that will be impacted. We invited the minister to come up to my electorate and face the people who will be impacted, and what do we hear? Crickets. I wrote to the minister asking for details around compensation packages for our local fishers and, again, crickets. So we called for a Senate inquiry into the decision to give our local fishermen and women their chance to be heard, which should be their right, and, again, this was shot down instantly by the Labor-Greens coalition. Our local fishers have been left in the dark.

So far there have been no announcements of when or how the buybacks for their licences are going to happen, leaving them with no information and no idea of how they're going to continue to support their families, and this is right before Christmas. If this issue were negatively impacting our major cities or our urban areas, there is no way that the current government would be making these decisions. This government believes that this decision is only going to impact regional communities, so they aren't even giving us a chance to have our say. Local fishermen in my electorate of Dawson are going to lose close to 70 per cent of their income due to commercial gillnet bans. Imagine if I stood here today and tried to cut the income of everyone in this room by 70 per cent. There'd be an outcry. This is happening at a time of a Labor created cost-of-living crisis, with 12 interest rate hikes in 18 months and an economy with higher rates of inflation than almost every other advanced economy in the world. It's unbelievable.

The commercial fishing operations are not the only businesses that will suffer. The chandlery shops, the boat builders and repairers, the fishmongers, the ice makers, your local fish and chip shops and your corner stores are all going to suffer because of this senseless decision. I have something to tell the minister and the Albanese Labor government: you're wrong in thinking that it won't impact anyone outside regional communities. With this decision alone, you're removing 2,000 tonnes of wild caught Australian seafood from the market—2,000 tonnes. This is going to result in more expensive, lesser quality imported seafood for the Australian public. When I walk into my local fish and chip shop in Bowen, I like the fact that the fish is wild caught and fresh from our region and not fish that has had to travel thousands of kilometres and is of lesser quality. I'm calling on the Albanese Labor government to recognise that the commercial fishing industry is an important industry that has social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits. Stop bowing down to environmental activism and start making decisions based on science.

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