Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The prosperity, finances, jobs and food security of Australians are under attack from a government which has proven it will stop at nothing to impose an antifarming agenda. I never thought I'd see a time when the food sector that has underpinned Australia for centuries would come under such concerted and ideology-driven assaults by its own Australian government. Primary production on the land and sea, forestry and mining are groaning under the weight of harsh, unnecessary and unscientific regulation that is pushing participants to the wall and reducing food production. In turn, that pain is passed onto consumers, as we all struggle with double-digit price rises for nearly everything we need. Access to well-priced Australian-grown food is an option that Australians will lose under this latest net-fishing regulation.

One of these anti-Australian Labor brain explosions is the banning of net fishing in North Queensland. It's a subject I've raised repeatedly here and in the media because Labor is crucifying an industry that is unworthy of such treatment. The latest nail being hammered in by Queensland Labor involves mandatory cameras and inspectors on fishing boats. Hardened criminal have less scrutiny placed on them, but this is the result when you have activists dictating policy. Just at the weekend I spoke to multigenerational net-fishing families in Tully, in North Queensland. They take great care to place their nets away from where non-target species move. They're highly regulated with GPS and logbooks. But, thanks to Labor, one family's 14-year-old son is being denied his dream to follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps and supply fish to those who cannot catch their own. The demise of commercial fishing in North Queensland will be to Queensland's and federal Labor's eternal shame.