Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, there were reports of illegal fishing vessels at Rowley Shoals within a marine sanctuary in Australian waters. It's vital we maintain and apply the capacity to police our oceans in order to prevent harmful fishing practices and we should, but still don't, have a clear policy that rules out super trawlers.

Let's not forget that 65 per cent of the seafood we consume is imported yet we have no effective mechanism for combatting illegal and unregulated fishing practices, which are the cause of catastrophic over-fishing. In fact, according to Minderoo Foundation's recent Mending the Net report, we collect only two out of 22 pieces of information required to ensure catch-to-plate traceability. We generally don't know the vessel, the country location, the legality and authorisation of the fishing activity, or the compliance with basic workplace rights and safety conditions. Indeed, more than half of our imported seafood comes from three countries—China, Thailand and Vietnam—which have documented issues with poor fisheries governance and harmful labour practices. A survey by the Marine Stewardship Council shows that nine in 10 Australians want measures in place to ensure that they are not buying unsustainable seafood. Both the US and the EU have taken these steps, and we are behind the game on this issue. Australia should have a framework in place to help protect marine biodiversity and to prevent modern slavery by seeking to eradicate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing practices.