Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to note the motion by Minister Kon Vatskalis, the minister for fisheries in the Northern Territory. It is somewhat disappointing to me that a new minister, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran, with plenty of vim and vigour has declared that not on his watch is this going to continue. He has immediately gone to the Northern Territory with the greatest of grace and spoken to Minister Vatskalis. He escorted Mr Vatskalis out on the boats and explained some of the challenges that we are facing and the nature of those challenges so Mr Vatskalis can get across and have a better understanding of those facts. It is a great disappointment when the motion that they can come up with really does not go to the core of the issue—the challenges that we are facing and the resolutions to some of those challenges.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Senator Siewert for her contribution. She went some way to understanding the complexity of this issue, and it was a significant contribution to the debate. I thank her for that. It was in stark contrast with those opposite for whom, frankly, this is just another opportunity for some cheap political point scoring. For someone like Kon Vatskalis to put his hand on his heart and say, ‘I’m here in the interests of all Territorians,’ I think is a bit misleading. There is no doubt that there is a lot of mischief behind this motion. There is certainly not a lot of advice to look to for establishing policy changes with success. There is no doubt that foreign fishing is something that we are all looking to. It is a very complex and difficult challenge. I think most people who are involved at any level in the processes would understand and recognise that.

In the motion, they talk about ‘foreign nationals establishing camps throughout Northern Australia’. It sounds like some sort of a jamboree! As far as the eye can see, there are foreign nationals popping up tents and establishing camps! Before I came down here today, I thought I would make a last minute check. You have to be careful of your facts. Well, I certainly do, and we do in this place. There is no indication from all the authorities I could speak to about ‘foreign nationals establishing camps throughout Northern Australia’. Yes, there have been some landings, and they are not only unfortunate but something that we need to strive very carefully to ensure does not continue to happen and, in fact, abates. It is a very important part of that process. To say that foreign nationals are establishing camps throughout Northern Australia is, again, part of this political tomfoolery. It tends to mislead the people and the parliament in which the motion was made. It smacks of cheap political point scoring. What is necessary is to do exactly what our minister has done. He said, ‘This is a very important issue.’ Issues of this importance and this complexity are only really resolved with genuine partnership—to genuinely say, ‘We need a bipartisan approach to this. We all need to sit down together and assist each other in this matter.’

It is only very recently in the history of illegal fishing in Australia over 15 to 20 years that the Western Australian or Northern Territory governments have become involved in this process. That is unfortunate, because there have been a number of vessels that have either landed or sought to fish very much in inshore waters. In the past, this has been an issue that has substantially dealt with offshore fishing.

I confess, as part of government, that we can do a lot better. There might be only a small number of vessels, but they pose a very genuine risk. This is an opportunity to talk to this place about what we have in place. We talk about biosecurity, and the Vatskalis motion says that it puts ‘our bio-security and national sovereignty at great risk’. In terms of the biosecurity, it is good to remind the people in this place exactly what we do. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service ensures that before the vessels come to Darwin Harbour they anchor off Charles Point, sometimes in horrendous conditions. Divers are taken out to the vessel. They dive on the hull of the vessel to ensure there is no biofouling. There are some five species of biofouling that we do not want to come into Australia, so those vessels are inspected. If they are found to be clean of those particular foulings, they are allowed into Darwin Harbour. That is very comprehensive, expensive and sometimes dangerous. People are put at risk, but we put it at such a high priority that that is exactly what we do.

The North Australian Quarantine Strategy has been active in places like Swift Bay in Western Australia. Many of us here can remember when some of the first refugees—some 87; I can recall the number as something like that—came ashore there and disappeared into the reaches of the Kimberleys. The North Australian Quarantine Strategy team arrived in the place and made sure there was no marine fouling there. They made sure there were no quarantine impacts. That is a process that happens to this day. If there are any pieces of boat that flow ashore, if there are any reported landings, there is a comprehensive follow-up. It is very important that people understand that.

This is the nub of it, in the middle of this motion:

[We] call upon the Commonwealth government to agree to fund the expansion of the indigenous marine ranger program throughout Northern Australia as a matter of urgency.

I have become a little cynical in this place. The Indigenous Ranger program is primarily not a compliance regime. They will tell them that themselves. I was in Borroloola last week speaking to the coordinator of the Indigenous Ranger program, who is doing an exceptional job. Principally, their role is to look at research into a whole range of issues, but principal compliance outside of reporting is certainly not within their bailiwick. But it has been said: ‘Let’s have an Indigenous rangers program. The Commonwealth should expand it and they should pay for it,’ knowing that there is no compliance capacity within those. We have not have had a sea ranger program arrest any of these boats. They have played a fundamentally important role in detection.

In those communities, people like Gibson Farmer from the Tiwi Islands, or Mr Mbababook from Maningrida, make up a comprehensive part of border strategy, but they cannot be relied on to be a fundamental part of our compliance regime. That is just not what they do.

As a fisherman in the Northern Territory for just on 20 years, I note with interest that since the Labor government and Kon have been in charge, the fishermen tell me that there is hardly a vessel capable of getting outside of Darwin harbour. What has happened to boats like the Perbasue, the Salu and the Emalambrit? They have gone. The Labor government forgot to mention that. Then they thought: ‘Perhaps we could call on the Commonwealth to provide the funds. That would be innovative.’ But the Commonwealth did not fund that whole process. We lent them one of the Andrew Fisher class vessels. They were the vessels that predated the Bay class vessels. I think they were ugly vessels and that is probably why they were replaced. But, for whatever reason, the Northern Territory government sought to use one. The Commonwealth, very reasonably, has provided them with a Charles Kingsford. I am not sure how often it went to sea, but I cannot find anybody in the industry who has ever seen it outside the harbour. Whether it did a day trip or something, I am not sure. I will stand corrected if that is the case. But the Labor government have demonstrated that they have made no commitment at all to protecting their own waters. If you talk to Fisheries police, they will tell you that they get around with dinghies on top of their cars. That is the total input of the Northern Territory government.

We have this letter from the Northern Territory government, popping this resolution off to the Senate for us to debate. Those on the other side have grasped at another straw, like a drowning man grasping at a straw, thinking that this will really crack open the policy. But you have to dig into this to see the real cynicism. They have made no contribution at all. We provide, through CDEP arrangements, ongoing funding for the manning of those crews in the sea ranger programs. To now say, ‘We should expand all of that,’ and to put it down to foreign fishing is pretty cynical and is completely out of order in this place. It attempts to mislead this place about the capacity and the functions of that particular process. Calls for us to adopt this strategy fly in the face of commonsense. It contains absolutely no bilateral involvement whatsoever and, without that bilateral involvement, it will not work.

In 2005, then Minister Senator Ian Macdonald visited the marine affairs and fisheries minister in Indonesia. We are working very closely with them to ensure that they have a much greater involvement in compliance. I am gratified to see that the West Australian has reported that two Indonesian navy patrol boats are patrolling our borders. I cannot make a close correlation that it was a consequence of that meeting, but a regional marine management approach is certainly the way to go. I know this government are working on that. The evidence is the Chen Long which has been spoken about in the media. What a fantastic outcome for Australian fisheries, for Customs and for the Navy. We should not be in this place knocking them. We should be supporting them. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.