Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Their politically correct mania turns them into a police force, and they try to prosecute every potential offence. If you look at the history of the word ‘fisherman’, the ‘man’ bit comes from ‘manus’, the Latin, which is ‘hand’. So really the term is ‘fisherhand’ and therefore it is non-gender-specific and does not refer to the fisherperson’s sex. Nevertheless, if it made Senator Siewert feel somewhat purer for having said that, then I hope that she feels good about that this evening—albeit she is technically incorrect.

I have already thanked Senator Ian Macdonald for his involvement in this issue over many years. He has made a fantastic contribution and I am delighted that I can put that on the record this evening. He asked a few questions about what we are doing in Indonesia. Part and parcel of our new package is $1.2 million which is set aside for a public information campaign in Indonesia to try to dissuade them from undertaking activities, and part of that campaign will warn the villagers of the huge penalties that they now potentially face. Our package also includes an extra $6.4 million for staffing at our embassy in Jakarta.

Senator Webber made a contribution, and I accept her interest in this area, but I think I have already corrected her in relation to the administrative forfeiture matter that she raised. She also suggested that we needed one single approach on this. We do have that in the Joint Offshore Protection Command. When people are out on our waters, we do not want them to be alert only for illegal fishers; we want them to be alert for customs, for quarantine, for illegal immigration and other matters. That is why it is good to have a Joint Offshore Protection Command that takes all these things into account. It shows that the government is able to deal with all these things with the expertise of all those departments.

I think I have dealt with the matters raised by honourable senators during the debate. I thank them for their contribution and their support for this legislation.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.