Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I stand in defence of the five million recreational fishing people in Australia. The recreational fishing industry is worth conservatively around $10 billion to our national economy. These five million people are the largest participant group of any group participating in recreational activities. It was with great pleasure that I read this morning how the New South Wales government is revisiting the marine park plans that were instituted by the former Labor government—instituted without adequate consultation with the recreational fishing industry or with the commercial fishing industry. In fact, it was a dirty deal done dirt cheap to support the green movement.

Ministers Hodgkinson and Parker in New South Wales have made a responsible decision. They are going to revisit the science and put in place an expert knowledge panel that will look at the benefits of the park, areas that should be sanctuary and areas that should be opened up to recreational fishing. In the last few years in particular I have been working with a number of groups—from Recfish through to AFTA, steered and headed by John Dunphy from Shimano. In particular I have been talking to people who are making their living out of the recreational fishing industry. Those are the people who supply the fishing equipment, the bait, the cafes, the motels, the boat sales—all of those whose income depends on having a viable recreational fishing industry.

Our yield from fishing per square kilometre in Australia is one of the smallest in the world. It is a key part of our tourism fabric. People like Paul Worsteling, who runs the IFISH television show, and Al McGlashan, who runs the Small Boats Big Fish television show, understand it: they are out on a weekly and daily basis selling recreational fishing. It is not just the benefits of catching the fish—parents and families go out to enjoy the outdoors, away from televisions and away from computers, spending time and engaging. It is part of the social fabric that we really need in this country.

Again, I congratulate the New South Wales ministers, but what happens with this federal government? Here we have the federal minister who had the Marine Reserves Network Management Plan released yesterday that was rushed through—bashed through—without reasonable consultation. There is a total lack of understanding of the long-term social and economic implications of these lockouts that they have put in place. There will be some that say, 'This is unreasonable; we need to protect these areas.'

I spent over 30 years in the diving and fishing industry. I have spent the hours under the water and above the water; I have earned my living in it; I have trained and educated people in the management of the marine environment. One of the big problems up in the Great Barrier Reef in relation to the divers is the concentrated effort on one reef. I will give you the example of Hastings Reef, just off Cairns. You have three buoys, so you have three boats. Let's say they are carrying a hundred divers each and they are doing two dives a day. That is 200 dives times three boats—600 dives a day or 4,200 dives a week on one small reef. In discussions with people across the broader industry people want a great environment. I think we need to learn a lesson from those who work the land—those who understand that if you plough the same paddock and grow the same vegetables in that paddock over and over again, you get degradation in that paddock. We need to look at things like crop rotation, releasing some reefs for this year and then moving on to give the reefs a chance to recover. That applies to both fishing and to diving—in fact, to all marine management.

I do agree that we need certain areas that are sanctuaries—no boats, no fishing, no diving, no activity occurring. You hold those as the benchmark areas. The recreational fishing industry is important to Australia. It is important to our tourism market; it is important to regional communities that make their living from it. It is important to those more than 20,000 people nationally who work in industries supporting and supplying the products for our recreational fishing industry. What we have from this government is a determination to shut down one of the greatest pastimes ever. As a young fellow, I used to spend my days with my dad. We were so poor that my fishing line was an old Coke bottle—because it had the best curve—with a bit of line wrapped around it, a cork and a hook. But, you know, those hours I spent with my dad were some of the most memorable ever. It didn't matter whether we caught fish or not. The most important thing was spending time together. I condemn this government for their actions.