Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

So that is the answer from the Greens: shut down a potential fishery and import from unsustainable sources. Let us offshore our environmental responsibilities. Let us calm our conscience by offshoring. Let us take it somewhere else where they do not have the fisheries management tools in place.

What the coalition would like to see is marine protected areas based on science, not based on campaigns by environmental groups from the United States, not based on, 'Let's move it away from this Labor seat and put it up here next to this coalition seat.' Let us have marine protected areas based on science. Let us put everybody in the room together. Let us put the science on the table. Let us have the conversation between everyone. Let us not play groups off against each other, which is what the government has done in this particular process, because the groups come in and tell me what has just happened to them. Let us have a genuine consultation. Let us not just have show-and-tell, where the government turns up and says, 'Here's the maps; that's what's going to occur.' Let us have a consultation process where the final maps—the maps were put out 60 days ago or a bit longer and the minister said, 'This is not about the boundaries; this is about whether we do it or not.' That is not a consultation. That is a take it or leave it process.

That is what the coalition is concerned about. The coalition is concerned about the process. We are not contesting the science, as the Greens contend we are. We have said we believe in the science. If something needs to be protected, we should protect it. But we need to look after it all, not just bits of it. Let us not salve our conscience by saying that we have locked up 30 per cent of our marine environment, that we have locked out our fishing industry from all of those areas. Let us not salve our conscience by thinking that we have done our job. Let us look after it all. Let us ensure that we have strong fisheries management.

Senator Whish-Wilson indicated that this is a fisheries management tool. Not even the scientists contend that it is a fisheries management tool. The government does not contend that it is a fisheries management tool. It is not a fisheries management tool. The process around the marine protected areas is about looking after important parts of our environment. One of the issues around that is that fish tend to congregate around formations in the ocean. That is just the nature of things, and that is where the contest comes into place as part of the development of these marine protected areas. That is where the difficulty is.

This process also has not compensated people. There is $100 million sitting on the table for the fishing industry, but what about the downstream businesses and communities? There is absolutely nothing there for them. What about the recreational fishing sector, which is something like a $10 billion a year industry? There is nothing there for them. There is no recognition of the bait shops, the boat sellers and the charter operators, so any argument about proper compensation as part of this process is completely and utterly out of order. There is not proper consultation. The process that was put in place in the south-east put up $220 million, just for the south-east. In this process, we have $100 million for the rest of the country. We have a very simple proposition here: allow this declaration process to be scrutinised by the parliament. That is all we say, and that is what this bill does.