Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we are celebrating the cave-in by the Beattie government on access to Moreton Bay for fishermen and for recreational and commercial users. It was this weekend that the Beattie government, and in particular Deputy Premier Anna Bligh, agreed to fair representation on any advisory committee deciding the future of Moreton Bay zoning, to a complete review of the use of Moreton Bay, to a joint cabinet submission—not just one put up by Environment—to no pre-emptive decisions in this area and to making data publicly available. Those five simple concessions could not be made 31 days ago at the Cleveland Sands fishing forum; could not be made by the Minister for Environment, Local Government, Planning and Women, Desley Boyle, who only promised not to ban fishing; and, of course, could not be made until an eleventh-hour appeal to stop the convoy to Parliament House on Saturday.

Well, the government finally caved in. This is a government that clearly has a capacity to listen but not to understand the views of local fishers and recreational users. What we have now is a Moreton Bay Access Alliance with a voice for local users and a future for the use of Moreton Bay. Through Bruce Alvey, Rod Henderson, local fishing groups, recreational users of the bay and Andrew Trim, a local Liberal candidate, fighting hard for those views, we can look forward to future generational use of Moreton Bay and not eleventh-hour capitulations by the Beattie government, which is failing to listen to the locals.