Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Fisheries Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fishing Offences) Bill 2006 is the latest move by the Howard government to deal with the scourge of illegal fishing in Australian waters. There are many people in Australia who have been asking the Australian government for years to take decisive action to deal with illegal fishing. This is not something that took place overnight. Consider these figures: between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004, there were 1,588 sightings of possible illegal fishing vessels in Australian waters; in the calendar year 2004, there were 8,108 sightings of possible illegal fishing vessels; and in the calendar year 2005, this had jumped to 13,018 sightings. In 2003, we would have had perhaps an average of 132 sightings per month, in 2004 that had jumped to 675 sightings per month and last year that had reached the truly staggering figure of 1,084 sightings per month. At this stage, we have not been provided with any information about the number of sightings so far for this year. We can only hope that there has been a decrease.

The fishing industry, especially in Western Australia, has been raising this issue with governments for years. State and territory ministers have been raising the issue with the Commonwealth for years. I am sure that the Commonwealth agencies and departments such as Coastwatch, Customs, AFMA and the Navy have been reporting this surge of illegal fishing. Time and time again, we were assured by the Commonwealth government that they were winning the battle against illegal fishing. An almost tenfold increase in monthly sightings in a two-year period does not suggest that we are winning that battle. The surge in illegal fishing seems to actually be suggesting that we have lost the battle. It seems to be suggesting that we have run up the white flag, surrendered our sovereignty and declared that everything is going okay. The previous minister for fisheries, Senator Ian Macdonald, put out press release after press release saying that we were winning the battle—I have been told that this ran to some 150 individual press releases. It is a significant admission of failure that during that time we saw monthly sightings increase nearly tenfold. With the appointment of the new fisheries minister and a range of new budget initiatives to the tune of over $300 million, we are now seriously expected to believe that we are now winning the battle.

People would be more than justified in being cynical in response to the government’s latest announcements on dealing with illegal fishing. Illegal fishing affects this country in numerous ways. Firstly, our fishing resources have been ravaged by illegal fishers, putting at risk the Australian industry and Australian jobs. As I have heard people from the fishing industry say time and time again: ‘We are sticking to our quotas based on the best science available to ensure a sustainable industry. We are sticking with the government’s rules, yet we think they are letting the stocks be destroyed by illegal fishing.’

Although it may not be as significant an industry as some others in my home state of Western Australia, fishing is still a significant employer and earner of export income. We cannot expect our Australian fishing industry to comply with the rules when we do not protect the fishery in the first place. There is a fundamental flaw in the logic of sustainable resource management when it only applies to those people who are operating legally. A sustainable catch determined by the best data available is meaningless when our fish stocks are being pilfered by illegal foreign fishing.

Secondly, there is an incredible risk to the viability of Indigenous communities who are reliant on the sea for their livelihoods. Labor members and senators have recently travelled to communities such as One Arm Point in Western Australia and Maningrida in the Northern Territory. While there, they were shown the damage being done to Indigenous economic self-determination by illegal fishing. For the government to talk about economic self-sufficiency for Indigenous communities and then act inadequately to combat illegal fishing would be seen by many as a disgrace. There is no point advocating economic self-sufficiency when we fail to protect that resource. Trochus shell harvesting is at risk of collapse for the Indigenous community at One Arm Point, because we as a nation have failed to protect the reefs from pillaging by foreign fishing.

Thirdly, there is a risk to the biodiversity of our country. There are numerous reports of illegal fishing vessels arriving in Australia, landing and setting up camps. These vessels are not only carrying crews but in some cases animals, such as chickens, dogs and even one report of monkeys. Given the efforts we make in this country to protect our biodiversity through stringent quarantine systems, it is somewhat disheartening to realise that we are not doing enough to prevent foreign vessels carrying animals from landing in Australia. It is no good only enforcing Australian quarantine regulations at our major cities and towns when we fail to protect ourselves around the entire country.

It is not just the risk of the introduction of pests and disease that is affecting our biodiversity. Illegal fishing is killing anything and everything that can be used as bait. One of the officials of the Western Australian fisheries department told the Labor members and senators that, when fisheries officers were examining overhead photos, they could not work out what the circular patterns were in the water. Upon investigating, they realised that turtles had been staked through one of their flippers and left tethered to an outcropping or pole. Once their fishing was finished, the illegal fishers would then return, grab the turtles and go home.

I am not using these examples as a means of demonising illegal foreign fishing vessels and their crews; I am demonstrating that these problems have arisen because we have let it get to this stage. Where once most foreign fishing vessels were only operating in very limited areas along our northern and western coastlines, the evidence now suggests that they are travelling further and further along our coastline. Reports from representatives of the fishing industry in Western Australia are now suggesting illegal fishing vessels are appearing well down the Pilbara coast. Where only a few years ago most of the incursions were along the Kimberley coast, it is now clear that, as our fishing grounds are being devastated by illegal fishing, they are now travelling further to maintain their catch. There are now also reports of incursions along the Queensland coast.

This legislation will amend the Fisheries Management Act 1991 to provide for increased fines and custodial sentences of up to three years imprisonment for persons caught fishing illegally in those parts of Australia’s territorial waters that are subject to Commonwealth fisheries jurisdiction. These new penalties will apply to fault based indictable offences and not to strict liability offences. The coverage of these changes will apply to that area beyond the three-mile nautical state and territory jurisdiction and the 12-mile Commonwealth jurisdictional limit. Our exclusive economic zone, which extends from 12 nautical miles to its 200-mile limit, is excluded from these provisions because, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, we are prohibited from having a custodial penalty regime on fishing offences beyond the 12-mile sea limit. I, like many other Australians, wonder about how this tough new regime is going to work. There may very well be over $300 million allocated over four years but, when there are over 13,000 sightings—over 1,000 a month—I am concerned that, even if we double our apprehension rate, we are still going to face a significant incursion into Australian waters. The member for Flinders in the other place said:

We will destroy the practice of illegal fishing and we will not stop until we have achieved that.

I am not interested in being told that this new package will do that because, like many representatives of the fishing industry in Western Australia, I have heard all of that before. Every time that the issue comes up, the government comes into this place and thunders on about how its latest initiative will solve the problem. Yet the illegal fishing vessels still come.

There is a strategy that should be followed to finally deal with the issue of illegal fishing. Firstly, we must ensure that our national rights and sovereignty are defended to the absolute limits of our capability. We must as a matter of course seize any vessel that is engaged in illegal fishing. Those fishing vessels must be destroyed either at sea or at destruction points on land. Of course there are risks associated with bringing vessels onshore for destruction, specifically the risk of marine pests that may be carried on foreign fishing vessels. However, we must not allow this to deter resolute action. The only way to stop this problem is to destroy the vessel. We must not make the mistake that we made with the administrative forfeiture where we would intercept the vessel at sea, seize the fishing gear and allow the fishing vessel to leave, because, when we do that, they go back to their home ports, take on new fishing gear and return straight back to Australian waters. People in the industry liken this approach to that of Rex Hunt catching fish: catch, kiss and release. It might make a good fishing program on television, but it is a pretty pathetic fishery protection program.

Secondly, we must create a single agency with responsibility for dealing with the problem. The current shared approach of involving numerous government departments, agencies and the defence forces has not worked up until now. A single agency with the jurisdiction to enforce any fishery, customs or quarantine power with dedicated patrol platforms, including aircraft, is needed. There must be one agency that can report back to this parliament and the Australian people about what is being done to deal with illegal fishing. To give some idea of the difficulties that the current multiagency approach provides, you only have to try to find your way through the maze at Senate estimates. To get the complete picture, you have to ask questions of AQIS, Customs, Defence, AFMA, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and sundry other agencies. If the government is serious about smashing illegal fishing, the time has come to put one agency in charge with dedicated patrol platforms to ensure that illegal fishing vessels are intercepted whenever and wherever they are breaking Australian law.

Thirdly, we must accept the reality that some work needs to be done to provide a different form of livelihood for those people engaged in illegal fishing. The bosses who control the illegal fishing industry to our north are making a fortune, but unless we work with the Indonesian government—and I agree with Senator Ian Macdonald—and through agencies like AusAID to develop reasonable alternative jobs then we cannot be surprised that more and more people are prepared to engage in illegal fishing. When you earn a pittance and the opportunity exists to earn a much larger income by engaging in illegal fishing then of course the bosses have no difficulty in sourcing recruits. Imprisonment and other penalties will, of course, make it less attractive. But you have to ask: ‘What would have happened if we had acted sooner rather than later?’ One of the tests of national sovereignty is to be able to defend yourself and your interests. We have failed that test for too long when it comes to illegal fishing.