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

This evening I would like to discuss my experience over the last two days with a work experience student from the Learn Earn Legend! program, a program run by the government which was launched yesterday. It is an Indigenous voluntary student work experience program that provides Indigenous secondary students with unpaid voluntary work experience in ministers’ offices, parliamentarians’ offices and Public Service departments and agencies here in Canberra over this week.

I had the delightful experience of having a young man by the name of Shaquille Oakley in my office over the last two days, and I set him a task to do some research for me relating to my portfolio, specifically with respect to fisheries. When he had pulled that information together, I asked him to put it into a speech that I could present to the chamber. I have to say that it was a real delight to have Shaquille in the office. He was very keen to participate and he was full of questions and inquiry; in fact, he told my staff member that he got into trouble at school for asking too many questions. I would have to say that inquiry is something that I would encourage, and it brought a smile to my face to hear that that was what he was getting into trouble for, because when the story was starting to unfold and the discussion was that he was getting into trouble, I wondered what it was about. To be told that it was for asking too many questions was really great.

When I asked him if he was going to have lunch with the rest of his colleagues who were here today, he said that he was but that if I wanted him to stay in the office and do some more work he would be more than happy to do that. That showed the enthusiasm he brought to the place today. He is a young man who made a conscious decision to be different and to achieve, and obviously we will see about that in the future. This is effectively the presentation that he put together for me:

My name is Shaquille Oakley, I am a 16 year old teenager who is currently schooling in Perth at Balga S.H.S, but I am originally from a small town called Carnarvon. Being from a small town which is surrounded by the ocean I have an experience with the sport recreational fishing but I had to big of dreams to follow such a sport.

Western Australia’s vast coastline offers people a variety of great fishing experiences. Recreational fishing is a popular activity that involves around 34 per cent of the State’s population and contributes more than $570 million a year to the State’s economy. An estimated 643,000 people in WA each year.

Western Australia’s fisheries management strategies have one primary goal—fish for the future. This means ensuring our fisheries are ecologically sustainable. These strategies are part of an integrated approach to management that not only takes into account the impact of fishing by recreational, commercial and indigenous sectors—But also the effect of other human activities on the state’s ecosystems. In Western Australia, all marine fishing is managed in four broad biological regions—the North Coast, Gascoyne Coast, West Coast and South Coast.

Marine conservation areas play an important part in conserving our marine ecology and protecting biodiversity. These include marine nature reserves, marine parks, fish habitat protection areas and various fishing closures. In addition to the general fishing rules in this guide, most of these areas contain sanctuary zones and have special rules that apply to fishing within them.

Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival.

In WA, recreational fishers are represented by recfishwest. The values of this organisation include:

1. to ensure sustainable management of fish stocks and habitat,

2. to preserve the environment,

3. to obtain adequate funding, and

4. all other items which could affect the interests of the recreational fishing community of Western Australia.

The goals of recreational fisherman in Western Australia are responsible. They include:

• Healthy stocks of fish of all species, sizes and ages
• Good environmental conditions so fish can survive and breed successfully
• Recognition by everyone that regardless of what has been done before, the fish stocks always belong to the whole community, not just to any one group, and the community should decide how those fish are used and shared.

Leading to:

• Recreational fishing having a guaranteed share of the fish which can be caught sustainably, sharing with commercial and other needs.
• Reasonable and practical fishing rules which balance the enjoyment of fishing with the need to manage and share the catch and preserve the fish stocks.
• Access to fishing spots, without unnecessary restrictions or closures which don’t make sense.

I think that is a pretty good effort, really an impressive effort, by Shaquille. As I said, it was a pleasure to have him in my office. He made the decision to be different and to achieve and from this piece of work he presented for me to present to the Senate tonight, I think he is going to go a long way. I wish him very well in achieving his dreams. As he said, he is dreaming big. I think he has the capacity to go a long way. He has demonstrated that by providing me with quite an impressive piece of work, which I have presented here tonight.