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

I rise this evening to support the recreational and commercial fishers of my electorate, whose lifestyles and livelihoods are being threatened by state Labor's plans to lock up fisheries along 1,200 kilometres of WA's south coast. From Eucla in the east to Nannup in the west, O'Connor spans almost all of WA's extensive shoreline.

Earlier this month, I caught up with the south coast angler and former CEO of the WA Fishing Industry Council, Darryl Hockey, to discuss the state's plan to ban fishing from vast tracts of the Southern Ocean. The so-called South Coast Marine Park would extend west from the state border, through Esperance, to Bremer Bay. Mr Hockey confirmed what I'd been hearing across my electorate, that the WA government has failed to undertake a triple-bottom-line analysis of its planned marine park.

The benefits to the environment of bluntly locking up productive fisheries and throwing away the key are questionable enough. But where Labor's fishery exclusion zones fall incredibly short is in the scant analysis of the social and economic havoc the marine park would wreak. Breathtakingly beautiful Esperance is the largest town in the marine park area. People there are absolutely outraged, with thousands rolling up to rallies opposing the widespread fishing bans.

Esperance is a recreational and commercial fishing town. Every summer, families from Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Norseman and other remote communities across the Goldfields travel down to Esperance for their annual holiday by the sea. This is a very big deal for many O'Connor people who live hundreds of kilometres from the coast, and most families who visit Esperance during their summer break like to fish.

The people of O'Connor, which has one of the longest coastlines of any electorate, also support their state's fishing industry, choosing to eat locally caught fish whenever they can. Unfortunately, across Australia, a nation girt by sea, 70 per cent of the seafood we consume is now imported. If WA Labor and its Greens cheer squad succeed in imposing the marine park, the likelihood of Western Australians ever getting to eat Western Australian seafood will be severely diminished.

During my meeting with Mr Hockey, the point was made that, if WA fishers can't fish locally, we'll be left to import inferior products from unsustainable fisheries overseas. We agreed that the marine park is the antithesis of sustainable resource management. There is no balance, and it would be a disaster for coastal economies and their communities. It would erode WA's food security and harm the state's fishing and tourism industries.

The state environment minister, Reece Whitby, has snatched control of the marine park process, leaving WA's primary industries department, and hence south coast fishers, out in the cold. In May, I wrote to tell Mr Whitby that nine out of 10 respondents to a survey I ran opposed his marine park. Almost 6,000 people took the time to respond to my survey. Mr Whitby did not take the time to respond to my letter until today—a lazy three-month turnaround. In a sanctimonious twist, his letter accuses me of not advocating for south coast communities. Mr Whitby then slams my opposition to his marine park: 'This is an arrogant environment minister who is not listening to the people. He is now weighing up whether to unilaterally impose his divisive fishing ban before the next state election in March. With no decent analysis undertaken on the impact of the south coast economy or lifestyle, it would be a reckless minister, indeed, who goes to the polls with this half-baked plan.'

I make no apology for challenging Mr Whitby's convoluted and seemingly pre-ordained planning process on behalf of my constituents. Instead, I will keep fighting this unfair fishing ban. Like federal Labor's ban on live sheep exports, state Labor's broad-scale fishing industry ban is intensely unpopular with south coast locals. Both bans attack regional communities, and both bans shift the market for the primary produce offshore to less sustainable producers, to the detriment of Australian farmers and fishers who operate to higher standards.

As the next phase of my fight to scupper the South Coast Marine Park, I'm launching a petition. I'll do this online and in hard copy so that I can submit the petition to the WA Legislative Council for consideration by the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs. I'll continue to keep the people of O'Connor informed of the progress in a simpler, more transparent way than Mr Whitby ever has, because plans such as the South Coast Marine Park are only as good as the buy-in they have from the public. All the evidence to date indicates there is no buy-in here.