Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I will not share your characterisation of the New South Wales government, Senator Burston—through you, Mr President. I do not believe it is an accurate interpretation of their view. From our perspective and in my view, we have a strong commercial fishing industry, which we support. Indeed, just last week, the National Party put on a barbecue for our commercial fishing industry, where we had people from all around the country and our sector. It is an annual event that we have run in this parliament since 1988. As long as this parliament has existed, we have run this barbecue at Christmas time. They say it is the event of the year, because it has beautiful fresh seafood from around our country and it attracts people from all political parties. I saw some of your colleagues there last week, Senator Burston. It is a very important sector for our country. People like Nick Schulz from up at Urangan Fisheries were there. He has been a long-term supporter of this program. Austral Fisheries has been a long-term supporter as well. All of these industries are very important. We support them, we back them and we want to see more of them.