Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, the newspaper for your home town and Senator Colbeck's home town in Tasmania, The Advocate, ran a big headline on Wednesday this week saying 'Banned'. It had a big picture of the Abel Tasmanformerly Margerissupertrawler on the front. The headline said 'Banned for good'. No doubt, that is a headline that the Tasmanian Liberals are happy to see, given their consistent opposition to a supertrawler in Tasmanian waters. No doubt it is also good for the Tasmanian election to have the Prime Minister come out and make an election promise—that is, if I read Senator Abetz's answers today correctly—that supertrawlers will be banned by this government.

Unfortunately, the government cannot be trusted on the environment, especially in relation to their election promises on the environment. The government had a very clear policy to send a Customs vessel to the Southern Ocean this summer for the whaling season, which was broken. They also had a very clear promise on fisheries to send a Customs vessel to police the Southern Ocean to prevent illegal fishing, particularly of Patagonian toothfish stocks, and that has also been broken. They also said they would not touch the World Heritage area in Tasmania, and that has also been broken. So excuse my scepticism around election promises on the environment. Part of me is glad and relieved that the Liberal government has come around to our way of thinking.

The Greens have consistently opposed this supertrawler being in Australian waters—I do not think anybody disputes that—and we have a policy which was reflected in a motion in the Senate back in 2012 that we wanted to see a permanent ban on this type of fishing arrangement in this country, with the onus of proof having to come from any future proponent to overturn that ban. We believe that a legislative ban should be put in place on this type of activity.

Once again, Senator Abetz insinuated very strongly during question time that I was asking about this because of the Tasmanian election coming up. It is quite the opposite: I wanted to make sure that the campaign we have run and prosecuted against supertrawlers in Tasmanian waters and in Australian waters was seen as genuine, that Prime Minister Tony Abbott's response to Andrew Wilkie's question the other day in the House was also genuine and that this was not going to be an election promise that was easily broken. So my message to Senator Abetz and to the Prime Minister is: put your money where your mouth is. Let's see you legislate to prevent and ban this type of fishing activity in this country.

Everywhere this boat and other types of supertrawlers have gone, trouble has followed. No-one disputes—even the ferocious champions who brought the supertrawler to this country do not dispute—that they have had trouble internationally. They have been dogged by problems related to overfishing, including being charged and prosecuted for illegal fishing. The country simply does not want this type of fishing activity. Rightly or wrongly, rationally or irrationally, very few of us have seen a campaign develop as quickly right across this country—right across different electorates in this country; right across different political spectrums in this country—as a gut reaction, not wanting to seeing this type of fishing activity in Australian waters.

I ask again that the government, rather than make an election promise that could simply be seen as hot air, put in place a legislative process to ban this type of fishing arrangement. It is not just because that is what the Greens want to see and, I think, most Australians would like to see—and I say that with absolute confidence—but that we are also undergoing a process through the Department of the Environment, with an independent fishing panel spending money on research around supertrawlers. If the Prime Minister meant what he said and if Senator Abetz meant what he said—although he did not say much; he certainly hid behind the Prime Minister's words and looked very uncomfortable during question time—I would suggest that they make a call on this, because we are spending taxpayers' money. There is another $650,000 allocated for expenditure on potential impacts of supertrawlers, but if we are going to ban them let's get on with it. Let's not muck around; let's put that in place and do what most Australians want to do and stop supertrawlers coming to these waters. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.