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

As I was saying in my answer to the earlier questions, we are proud supporters of the commercial fishing sector. From where I am in Queensland, the Liberal National Party is a sole voice, a lone voice, campaigning against some of the ill-thought-through net-free fishing bans introduced by the Labor government up there. Unfortunately, other parties, such as Katter's Australian Party, deserted us on that fight, and we lost that fight thanks to that desertion.

We are proud supporters of the commercial fishing sector. We have provided $550,000 to establish the National Seafood Industry Alliance. It will be a representative industry body that can be the one voice for the sector in this country—a very important development. We have also done the same by providing grants to the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation. They had an event here last week that I was at. We put $15 million into the National Carp Control Plan. These are the rabbits of our rivers. They need to go. We need to deal with them. It will improve our water quality and our environment, and it will improve opportunities for inland fishing as well. These are all positive steps we are taking to defend our commercial fishing sector.