Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

With all due respect to Senator Hanson, you're posing now a very much hypothetical question on something I've just said is not the government's policy nor the government's intent and won't be happening under the government. Senator Hanson, you can't come and ask me what the benefits are of something you're clearly opposed to and, indeed, the government isn't actually pursuing. What we are pursuing is ensuring that Commonwealth marine reserves ensure that across Senator Hanson's state of Queensland or, indeed, anywhere else around the country we have a strong Australian fishing industry, that we have fair access to waterways for recreational fishers that underpin strong tourist and other activities and that within all of that we have a sustainable environmental framework that ensures those commercial and recreational fishers can be strong well into the future knowing that they have sustainable fishery stocks as well.