Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

() (): I rise to update the House on the shambolic South Coast Marine Park that WA Labor is foisting on my constituents. The environment minister, Reece Whitby, wants to ban beach access and fishing along a 1,200-kilometre stretch of WA's south coast from the South Australian border west to Bremer Bay. If Mr Whitby and his Greens backers succeed, the fear is that they'll turn their attention further westward, banning fishing from Albany along the entire south coast to Augusta.

I've done my own community surveys, which found that over 90 per cent of 6,000 respondents outright oppose the park. I've held forums in coastal communities, where their anger is palpable, where they've seen WA Labor try to impose its cultural heritage act on farmers and families and federal Labor commit to banning live sheep exports.

The WA government promised a thorough socio-economic analysis of the effects of the proposed marine park, but nothing has materialised. Commercial fishers have asked: what compensates the loss of an intergenerational livelihood? Recreational anglers have queried: why can't fishing be regulated rather than subject to a blanket ban? And beachgoers want to know why they'll be unable to access their pristine coastline.

Speaker, this is not a planning process; it's a banning process, and Labor should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

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