Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to highlight the plight of the Australian seafood industry, which is set to become the latest victim of this inept Labor government and its desperation to remain in power through yet another dodgy deal with the extreme Greens. Yesterday I attended a rally in the Brisbane seaside suburb of Shorncliffe attended by more than 150 people concerned about Labor's lockout of 1.5 million square kilometres of fishing zones. We do not need to lock up our oceans to protect them, and Minister Burke would have known that if this proposal had been based on real science as opposed to political science.

This proposed lockout has been undertaken with stealth and unholy haste. The government have not undertaken a proper study or analysis of the economic impacts of the lockout on the fishing industry supply chain, and as a result they seemingly do not know that a $4.35 billion impact and a loss of 36,000 jobs will result. What is more alarming is that they just do not care. Minister Burke continues to falsely claim that the lockout will only impact on one to two per cent of the industry—but this is what you would expect from a minister who not only does not do his homework but does not want to do his homework either.

No form of fishing as currently managed in the Coral Sea has been demonstrated to be a threat to biodiversity. Not only is the management of Australia's fishing zones of world-leading standard but also it continues to improve. We can thank the coalition and the Australian seafood industry for that.