Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yes! In his remarks on this bill in the other place, he pointed out that it is not satisfactory to simply jail indigenous fishermen—he said ‘fishermen’; I tend to use ‘fisherpeople’ or ‘fishers’—while leaving the organisers untouched. I could not agree more. This is an extremely complex and difficult issue. There is no one simple answer and, while I do not think the government believes there is one simple answer, I am afraid that that is the message that is being sent. It requires a complex, careful response. As I have articulated and as the Australian Marine Conservation Society has very clearly pointed out, we are not going to solve this problem if we rely on just locking people up.

We need to look at the causes of this problem. We need to be investing in our near neighbours to increase their capacity to repair the reefs and to share some of our knowledge and expertise in fishing. I believe and acknowledge that Australia has some of the greatest fishing expertise and best fisheries management practices in the world. We lead the world in marine protected areas—do not take that as meaning that I think there are enough, because there are not—but it has to be acknowledged that we lead the world in trying to put in place marine protected areas. Do not rest on your laurels; we still have a comprehensive system to roll out by the year 2012 to meet obligations and commitments this government has made. We need to share that knowledge with our northern neighbours. We have to tackle this in a comprehensive way and we have to acknowledge it is going to take time. It is going to take time to repair reefs, to develop capacity, to find alternative industries for our northern neighbours and to develop the necessary protocols and regional fishing organisations. We are in this for the long haul: there are no short-term answers and we need a comprehensive approach.