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

I have said commercial fishers and rec fishers have both been running exaggerated claims about the impact it will have. They do not appreciate the value that marine protected areas play in actually keeping their fisheries sustainable.

Marine protection is vital to the future of our unique marine biodiversity and is the key to our protecting our fish stocks into the future. The science is clearly there. How much more science do you need to show the values of marine protected areas, of no-take areas and of a properly planned process? That is what this process is—it is about properly planning the use and protection of our marine environment. Imagine if we had had the opportunity to do that terrestrially. What a different landscape we would have. Hopefully we would not have the massive loss of biodiversity that we have seen in Australia. We, unfortunately, have an unenviable record in extinctions and biodiversity loss terrestrially in this country. We do not want to replicate that in our marine environment.

We have an opportunity to make sure that those areas are protected but that we also have fish stocks into the future so that future generations can enjoy our splendid marine environment, so that rec fishers can continue to fish and so that commercial fisheries can continue to operate into the future. Without adequate marine protection we will see our fish stocks crash and we will see the loss of marine biodiversity that has been witnessed elsewhere on the planet. The Greens oppose this bill.