Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2014, despite the appeals from Senator Brown on the other side. Her closing remarks, where she tried to illustrate the position of the Prime Minister, were somewhat mischievous. I know that the Prime Minister is a great supporter of commercial and recreational fishing in this country, and we have some of the most well-managed fisheries for recreational and commercial shell and fin fishers in the world.

In speaking against this bill, I am highlighting the fact that this issue continues to be a gross Labor hypocrisy. As a senator for the state of South Australia and a strong supporter of a well-managed fisheries industry, I oppose the cheap wedge politics being peddled by Senator Ludwig. As we know, Senator Ludwig had a very low point in his ministerial career, when in June 2011 he put an overnight ban on the export of live cattle. We are still feeling the reverberations economically and socially of that knee-jerk, ill-considered decision of that time. This again is populist. I suspect that the CEO of GetUp! is often on the phone telling Senator Ludwig that the funding of his next campaign is probably in peril if he does not put this back on the map. I assume Senator Ludwig is a very good industrial union lawyer and I am sure he was in the past, but in matters of primary industries and fishing he gets an 'E'.

Remember the mess Tony Burke created around the Abel Tasman and supertrawlers in the Small Pelagic Fishery Harvest Strategy? I recall there were four amendments in four days to his declared fishing activities bill. The Labor government response to the Abel Tasmanwhich I have been on and have toured; I will come to that later—which our party opposed at the time, has made us an international laughing stock. It has effectively tarnished the reputations of leading scientific and industry figures who have been acting in the interests of sustainability and good management of our marine natural resources.

But you do not have to take my word for it; you can read articles with headlines such as 'World mocks ban on trawler' by Philip Heyward in the Mercury, or 'Expert labels trawler ban "embarrassing"' on the ABC, or 'Opposition to the Margiris "super trawler" not evidence based' by Bob Kearney in The Conversation. Then-Minister Burke's commercial fishing policy was more shambolic than a set of tangled crab nets, and Senator Ludwig needs to withdraw this bill for fear of getting caught in the same trap. He needs to allow the correct bodies to administer fishing activities in Australia. The issue is much bigger than just the trawler; it is about how we do business in Australia and how we manage a resource in a sustainable and profitable manner.

The Labor-Green approach is dangerous to the fisheries industry, an industry which, I might add, is worth over $2 billion annually. It employs around 11,600 people—7,300 directly and 4,300 indirectly—according to figures of just a few years ago, and we know that the industry has had growth since then.

The coalition government has confidence in the Australian Fisheries Management Authority regarding the management and sustainability of fisheries. Actions taken by AFMA have already led to a reduction in bycatch and sustainable ecosystems. Catch limits based on appropriate biomass percentages mean that the fisheries industry is already appropriately managed without any unnecessary ministerial intervention.

Currently, small pelagic fishery is productive and environmentally stable. In fact during July in my home of Adelaide the Small Pelagic Fisheries Workshop, a technical workshop and stakeholder forum, was hosted by the South Australian Research and Development Institute. The forum determined that Australian fisheries science and management was the world benchmark, with policies and practices for other nations to aspire to. Dr Patrick Hone, Executive Director of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, said at the forum:

A key finding was that the science underpinning Australian fisheries management was robust and that our harvest strategy and rules were clearly precautionary and very much in line with the best practice guidelines put forward by the Lenfest Working Group and the Marine Stewardship Council.

The harvest strategies which Dr Hone speaks of started in 2007 under Minister Abetz as Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation. These strategies outline management actions needed to achieve biological and economic objectives. With the harvest strategies in place and operating uninterrupted, the fishing industry can work with greater confidence and management decisions can be made with transparency and forewarning.

Only this government, not Labor and certainly not the Greens, understands the main factor in commercial fishing management—that the industry be economically viable as well as environmentally sustainable. Removing the sunset clause, as Senator Ludwig is attempting to do, would allow the environment minister to declare any fishing activity, requiring the establishment of an expert panel to investigate each declaration. This is dangerous to the industry and, given our best-in-practice policies, completely unnecessary for the purpose of fisheries management.

The coalition continues to do what it said it would do during the election campaign regarding commercial fishing. Our commitments were to: make decisions based on science; wait for the expert panel report on declared fishing activities before making a decision on the declaration of larger vessels; and seek more data to address criticisms regarding the age of data used to establish fish stocks. Further to that, in late October, Minister Colbeck welcomed the ABARES fishery status reports, which showed that, for the first time in eight years, no Commonwealth managed fisheries were subject to overfishing. In fact, under this coalition government, fisheries stocks are on the improve.

To return now to marine parks and a sensitive matter in my home state, I note worriedly that Labor has introduced 19 marine parks with 80 no-take zones within South Australia. These laws came into effect on 1 October this year and impact commercial and recreational anglers alike. Not only will this affect the enjoyment of our marine areas but it will hurt the fragile economy of our regions. If it were not already obvious that Labor do not understand the science behind fisheries management, it is even more evident that they do not understand their own policy. South Australian Labor spent $1.8 million filming and promoting an awareness campaign for their unwanted marine parks. In these ads, a family is seen crabbing on the Port Noarlunga jetty. If the Labor Party had half a clue, they would have known that the area depicted in that advertisement has already banned crabbing. How ironic and cruel is that?