Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Right. Thank you. Senator Joyce’s amendment goes to defining fishing as not searching for but taking fish. There has been a case that has been in the media in North Queensland about a gentleman who traversed a green zone with a line out the back of his yacht. He was convicted for fishing in a marine park. You have to ask the question: why was the line hanging out the back? Was he searching for fish? I think you have to say he was. But simply because there was not a fish on the end of that line, under your proposal you could argue that he was not actually searching for fish. I think that that would then cause there to be significant debate in the legal system, including the DPP, because you have got to include the searching for fish along with the attempting to take fish in a definition of fishing. It is a linear process. You search, you attempt and then you take. All of that process is in fact fishing. I suggest to the chamber that Senator Joyce’s attempts to say that, if you are in a Qantas jet flying up to Cairns, happening to go across the reef, and you look out the window—this is what Senator Joyce has suggested, perhaps in fun—you could be prosecuted for searching for fish.

I think we have to be very careful here. We know that we are playing the game of politics and the idea is to try and get people to support you, but let us do it on the basis of fact, let us do it on the basis of what is sensible and reasonable. If I am driving down the Bruce Highway towards Fishery Falls and someone says, ‘I’m going to go out in a boat today into a green zone to search for fish,’ are they likely to be prosecuted? Of course not, Senator Joyce. Let us be sensible about this.

This amendment that we are proposing, which will be dealt with next, will in fact clarify, as requested by the Senate committee, the definition of ‘fishing’—something that is extraordinary, for the people in the gallery, to have to define. I think we all know what it is, but we have provided that definition. Therefore, the proposal moved by Senator Joyce is not required. Senator Joyce, you asked for clarification on the interaction between the act and the zoning plan. Is that a correct characterisation of your question?