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

If Senator Colbeck would let me finish, I was about to highlight the fact that they are asking questions as though it is wrong, in a democracy, that organisations are allowed to speak to government or to statutory organisations. They ask questions like: have non-govern­ment organisations spoken to ministers? Have they spoken to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority? That is the way fishing organisations talk to government all the time. Of course recrea­tional fishers talk to government and statutory authorities—all the time. I would like to know his point. He keeps pushing the argument that Pew run the marine management process. It would not have taken 16 or more years to get to the point where we have some draft plans out on the south-west bioregional planning process if a non-government organisation were pulling the strings of the government—as they keep implying—which is of course a whole lot of nonsense.

There has been an extensive consultation process, which has looked at the science, at the biodiversity hotspots, at the areas of high endemism and at the areas that need special protection. They have consulted industry—they have consulted the fishing industry; they have consulted recreational fishers; they have consulted the oil and gas industry—for a very long time and now those plans are on the table. The conservation movement has made its view very clear: they do not think it has gone far enough. At the moment, the fishing industry or recreational fishers are making claims that it has gone too far. That is part of the process. There is a clear process, a review of management plans, where they are a disallowable instrument.

This is about not allowing the role that marine protected areas play in the essential protection of biodiversity and fish stocks. As I said, they keep denying that, despite the overwhelming evidence.

I urge coalition members to look at the role that marine protected areas play in protecting fish stocks in particular. It is really ironic that recreational fishers and the fishing industry are so vehemently opposed to marine protected areas and particularly to marine no-take areas—look at the role they play in terms of protecting fish stocks. No-take areas are absolutely essential, particularly given the overfishing that has occurred around the world.

Before the opposition jump up and say that I am having a go at fishing regulations, I want to point out that I have stated many times in this chamber that Australia has some of the best fishing regulation in the world. I have acknowledged that. I do not say it has reached optimum effectiveness, but we have said on many occasions that it is among the best in the world. But that is not to say that it cannot be improved. We are still seeing fish stocks depleted. In Western Australia the system has become so politicised, because no government dared to create adequate marine protected areas off the coast of Western Australia, that there are fish stocks after fish stocks and species after species that have got to the point where— (Time expired)