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

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage. I refer to reports on the weekend that the Japanese fishing industry has illegally taken $2 billion worth of southern bluefin tuna over the past 20 years. I note that this unreported and illegal catch of between 12,000 and 20,000 tonnes is double or triple Japan’s legal quota and that the Bureau of Rural Sciences has classified this species as overfished every year since it began reporting, in 1992. In light of this information, will the minister list the species as threatened under the EPBC Act, as advised by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee in September 2005? Will the minister now revoke the wildlife trade operation declaration under the EPBC Act that the fishery is ecologically sustainable?