Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Wills for the question. The member for Wills is one of the first members of the parliament to express particular high levels of concern about wanting to make sure that our fishing remains sustainable.

Of course, he was reflecting views that have been described by those opposite as only coming from environment groups. Nothing could be further from the truth. There has been no group making more noise in respect of this issue than recreational fishers. Recreational fishers have been responding loudly and strongly with two messages. Firstly, they want to make sure that in the years to come we have not overfished the stock. They want to make sure that they and their kids and grandkids can continue to catch fish in the same numbers that they can now. The second message that has come in response to the government's action is a genuine level of shock that an opposition which campaigned as through it were the friend of recreational fishing has gone missing on this issue and has actually become the chief opponent of a recreational fishing campaign. Recreational fishers have discovered, without any doubt, that those opposite stand against them when it comes to what happens 5½ kilometres from shore. They might be friends if there is a zone 400 kilometres away, but if it is as soon as you reach Commonwealth waters, those opposite and recreational fishers stand opposite each other, opposing each other, every step of the way in this debate.

This legislation is now being dealt with in the Senate. It was delayed for an hour while opposition speakers debated for an hour whether or not they had time to debate it in the Senate, but then, having done that, the debate commenced. After question time the debate in the other place will continue. I certainly hope that they reach a conclusion in that debate today, because we want to be in a situation where the law is proclaimed and we want to be in a situation where the government is able to action the new laws and the new legal powers which it makes available.

On proclamation of this legislation I will be using the legal authority made available to me and to the fisheries minister to be able to conduct the scientific research, which I wanted to be able to conduct, before conditions were put in place. In any other area of environmental law you can do it. In any other area of environmental law, if the information is not there, you can make sure that the studies are done before the decision has to be made. Until this law is through, you cannot do that and you do not have those same powers with respect to fisheries. This government makes no apologies for wanting to have a highly precautionary level of care when it comes to our oceans. Those opposite might be able to turn a blind eye to these issues, but we will not. (Time expired)

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