Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I will un-qualify that: you are a responsible person. That statement will be tested by the decision you take on this legislation. But I will be the first person up to congratulate you when you say that you support this amendment.

I also want to take into consideration some of the evidence that was given by GBRMPA to our committee. I am shorthanding this, but GBRMPA said, ‘Look, we’re not going to fine people straight away. We’ll warn them. If they’ve got a GPS or a plotter with a downloaded zoning map on board, we’ll fine them. If they attempt to flee when we approach, we’ll fine them. If they attempt to obscure vessel registration numbers when surveillance flights pass or if they’re fishing within a metre of a sign advising that fishing is not permitted in the area, we’ll fine them. And if they over-reach their bag limit, we’ll fine them. Only when these things happen will we take the step of fining these people.’ Well, that is blatantly untrue. In the submission of GBRMPA, that was untrue. Then GBRMPA said, ‘Don’t worry about a criminal offence; it’s not going to make all that much difference.’ GBRMPA said, when the matter of insurance was raised, that it would not prevent insurance being issued unless the conviction raised questions about moral character. They told the committee:

We have similar advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that the Australian Passport Office has advised that criminal convictions are not a basis for revoking or refusing the granting of a passport.

That is completely untrue. For GBRMPA to take a position which can be so blatantly shot down they must think we are a bunch of village idiots over this side of the chamber. We were given evidence that on both these issues their position was completely wrong. What did happen was people who took their grandson out in a tinnie got fined $1,000. They did not know that they were in a zone; they did not have any GPS on the boat. They did not have any way to find out. They acknowledged that they may have been in the wrong place, they started their outboard motor, pulled their line up and went away—but they got fined $1,000 for taking their grandson out. That is the case of Mr Alfio Maccarone from Innisfail, Senator McLucas—very near Cairns. Then there was the case of Peter Summerville, who went out fishing with his wife and was fined $1,200 and got a criminal conviction. His wife was fined $840 and got a criminal conviction. It is totally unfair. We have tried to change it. Today is the day that we can put this behind us and remove those criminal convictions from people’s lives.

One of the most powerful submissions we had was from a young guy who worked around people’s homes cutting lawns, doing duties and so forth. He said, ‘This is influencing my life.’ He and his brother came down from Cairns to go fishing and they put the boat in at Innisfail, or somewhere similar. ‘We thought,’ he said, ‘that the Barrier Reef Marine Park was out where the Barrier Reef was. We fished about half a mile offshore. We put the anchor out and within half an hour someone came and told us we were fishing in the Barrier Reef Marine Park green zone. I now have a criminal conviction. I have a young family. If I leave this job I will never be able to get another job.’ He was quite worried. He was a pest exterminator and he did other jobs around people’s houses. He said, ‘How would people like me to be going through their house exterminating pests if they knew that I had a criminal conviction?’ And yet GBRMPA said, ‘Don’t worry about a criminal conviction. It is not going to affect your passport, your insurance or anything else.’ Yet we have direct evidence given to us that all these things are taken into consideration. Senator Macdonald raised the question of a businessperson—a swimming pool manufacturer—who was not able to get insurance. He was going through the insurance process and he found that when it came to the question of possession of a criminal conviction he had to say, ‘Yes, I have.’ Their response was, ‘Well, sorry. We will ring you; don’t you ring us.’ So he was rejected. So, today is the day I hope the entire parliament can join with us—every senator: whether Green, Independent, Labor, National or Liberal—and support this amendment in order to right what was blatantly wrong and to remove the criminal convictions from most of these people. Some of the more severe ones we will not be able to get to, but we will remove the criminal conviction from every amateur fisherman and from most of the professionals.