Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This legislation will bring a tragic saga to a close. This started out as a tragedy and I hope that we can salvage something out of the legislation by passing the amendment that Senator Ian Macdonald and I have moved. To go back a few pages on this, it started off with GBRMPA deciding that they wanted 25 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef for biodiversity regions called regional area programs and then upping that to 33 per cent. I do not blame GBRMPA altogether; we were in government, we made the mistake and we are trying to fix it up today—admittedly six or seven months later, but we are going to achieve that by the fact that Senator Xenophon and Family First, I believe, are going to support this amendment.

We started off saying that the legislation was going to cost $1.5 million or maybe, rounded up, $2 million—but $255 million later! That is what it has cost this government to buy out the fishermen, to pay the net makers, to reimburse the boat builders, to reimburse the outboard motor people and to reimburse the people who process the fish. That is an overrun of $235 million. If you were running a business, Senator McLucas, what would you do to an accountant who came to you and said, ‘This is going to cost $3 million’ but then it cost $255 million? You would sack him on the spot, and I would say that he deserved it. Unfortunately, this is what happened with GBRMPA. GBRMPA told the government that it was going to cost about $2 million. We know that there will always be a bit of an overrun on these things, but $255 million! That is what the Howard government was in the hole for and it paid out.

One of the things that we did find out when the legislation went through was that people were going to be imposed with a criminal conviction. On 7 July 2004, I raised this matter in the coalition party room and we got the criminal convictions changed to infringement notices. So people received a good hefty fine but they were not burdened with a criminal conviction. That left in limbo the people who had been convicted from 1 July 2004 to 14 December 2006. The amendment moved by Senator Ian Macdonald is trying to repair the damage.

It looks as though this amendment has the support of Senator Xenophon, who is always open to look at things openly and correctly; and the senator from Family First. So it looks as though this is going to go through—and I welcome it, because I went out and campaigned on this just before the last election. Just before the last election I went into the Prime Minister’s office and said, ‘This is a nonsense; this is wrong—it is morally wrong to convict these people.’ He agreed and he gave me a set of words that said we would fix it up if we were re-elected. Well, out on the campaign trail I went, as you do, about explaining your policies to the people. I was quite clear. I said, ‘If we are re-elected we will repair this damage to those people who have a criminal conviction.’ Not to be out done, Senator Kerry O’Brien, then shadow minister, said of the Howard government that it was holding fishermen’s votes to ransom. And he announced that it was ‘beyond the pale’. An article in the Townsville Bulletin said:

‘Frankly, it is an indictment on this government—

the Howard government—

that they are prepared to play politics about the issues,’ Mr O’Brien said. ‘Those who have been convicted have had these convictions sitting against their names for some time. Why couldn’t the government act before today?—

A fair question. It goes on:

Mr O’Brien said an elected Labor government was also sympathetic to overturning the criminal records of the 324 fishermen convicted for the offence. ‘This is about correcting the initial mistake, and we would take the bipartisan position on that’ he said.

I would be very interested to hear Senator McLucas, because I do not think the government is going to honour Senator O’Brien’s commitment. I do not think they will. If they do then I will be the first to stand up and congratulate Senator McLucas for seeing the light. She does come from Cairns and she does represent these 324 fishermen who have been convicted. She has an office in Cairns. I know many of these people would have called on her and explained the wrongness of this decision. If she is representing North Queensland she will stand up and say, ‘Senator Boswell, you are wrong. The Labor Party is prepared to back this amendment moved by you and Senator Macdonald.’ I hope that is right. I think you are basically a very fair sort of a woman.