Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome to the parliament Dale Olsen from the WA Army Museum in Fremantle, who is with us today. There are two things my constituents in Fremantle have been very passionate about this week. On was Saturday's AFL elimination final between the Dockers and Geelong, which I am pleased to say saw the purple haze triumph. My congratulations to coach Ross Lyon, captain Matthew Pavlich and the whole team for their sustained and brilliant game, which we look forward to seeing repeated on Friday in Adelaide.

The second thing that has caused considerable agitation, not only in Fremantle but throughout the country, is a proposal to allow a super trawler literally to suck the life out of Australia's oceans as it has done in so many other parts of the world. This morning I received a petition from Greenpeace signed by more than 55,000 Australians, requesting action to prevent this marauding monster factory ship from operating in Australian waters. I received this petition with my Tasmanian colleague Senator Lin Thorpe, with whom I and others have been working closely on a private members' bill to stop the super trawler. There are many caucus colleagues who are supportive of this effort, including the members for Franklin, Brown, Wills, Makin, Corangamite and Griffith, and Tasmanian Senator Carol Brown.

We know that these petition signatures are representative of the concerns of millions of Australians right around the country and how they feel about the effect this vessel will have on Australia's marine environment and on local fishing communities in terms of localised depletion, bycatch impact on seals, dolphins and seabirds, and the removal of large numbers important species from the marine food chain. (Time expired)