Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk yet again about the appalling shark cull program currently being undertaken in my home state of Western Australia. Over summer we had two very large protests in Western Australia about the state government's shark catch and kill program. On 1 February I joined over 6,000 Western Australians on beautiful Cottesloe Beach, as well as thousands more people around the world, protesting to protect our sharks—something the Western Australian government and the federal government will not do. These people gathered to express their disappointment and anger about Premier Barnett's approach to shark management in Western Australia and the complicity of the Abbott government in the culling of a protected species, the great white shark. This strategy will also have an impact on other sharks such as tiger sharks and bull sharks, and other marine life.

The Western Australian government's catch-and-kill policy is a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived increase in the risk of shark attack. It lacks the backing of science—it has been criticised across the planet for its lack of science—and has not been subject to adequate scrutiny at a state or federal level. It should be ended immediately. The exemption for this policy should be revoked and the policy should be abandoned. Over the past few weeks, drum lines have been installed along the Western Australian coast, including off Perth's most popular beaches. You can see the buoys for the drum lines just off the beach.

The state government is refusing to release information about the impact of this appalling policy. Surf Life Saving WA is reporting on the cull through tweets—it is being left up to the community to report and pull together figures. As far we are aware, four sharks greater than three metres have been slaughtered and six have died after being caught on a line—drowned, injured or attacked by other sharks or predators while on the hook. There are at least 26 sharks of less than three metres in length that have been released, some of which, we understand, are injured, and we do not know what their fate has been. One shark under one metre in length is reported to have died on the hooks. This is despite the Barnett government's pledge that the hooks would be too big to catch smaller sharks. The state government is in breach of the undertakings it gave to the federal government when it sought an exemption to this appalling policy.

When it comes to the number of sharks being caught, as I said, the community has been left to rely on media reports, observations that are undertaken on the water and Surf Life Saving WA, which is tweeting when it knows a shark has been released off a beach. The state government has a responsibility to report this information to the community and, certainly, to the federal government. I am wondering how much of this information the federal government already knows—or is it also relying on media reports to find out what its exemption has done to these sharks? We also do not know anything about how any of the other marine life has been affected by these drum lines, because we know that drum lines affect other marine life.

Let me be clear: while this is a WA policy, it would not have gone ahead without the exemption from the federal government—without the complicity of the Minister for the Environment, Mr Hunt, who gave this program an exemption. Without that exemption, this policy would have at least been assessed. So Western Australians hold the federal government responsible, including Mr Hunt and Mr Abbott, for this cull policy—because that is what it is. Make no mistake: this is a culling of sharks. The federal government is just as responsible as the state government for this cull.

The exemption granted by Minister Hunt allows the killing of tiger sharks, bull sharks and great white sharks. It does not allow the killing of sharks that are under three metres in length, but it is clear that the drum lines are in fact catching and harming sharks outside of the target size—in other words, under three metres long. As I outlined, the vast majority of species that have been caught on the drum lines are not the target size; they are under three metres long. We also do not know what long-term impact it will have on the marine ecosystem.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet in Western Australia have confirmed today that sharks caught on drum lines were being attacked, both in the south-west and off Perth. They have not said how many sharks have shown signs of attack, but at least two have been reported. The WA government have said only that these incidents are 'in a minority'. This lack of detail is yet another example of the government avoiding proper scrutiny of this policy. Sharks that are caught in drum lines and then released can sustain potentially life-threatening injuries from the hooks themselves or die while waiting to be released because the lines are not being checked 24/7. This of course adds to the potential for attacks from other sharks and other predators. We also do not know how many sharks are dying once they are released from the drum lines. The RSPCA have raised concerns about the difficulties of killing larger sharks humanely and have questioned whether the contracted fishermen involved have the necessary expertise.

Minister Hunt needs to look into these issues immediately. Sharks play a critical role in the health and wellbeing of our ocean's ecosystems and they are an apex predator. Western Australians know this, and that is why they are responding as they have—much to Mr Barnett's surprise, I bet—to this appalling policy. This cull policy is being condemned by Western Australians and other people around the planet who care about the marine environment and care for sharks. They know that sharks are essential to maintaining the balance of the ecosystems and allowing the populations of other creatures to remain at healthy levels.

Great white sharks are a protected species. They are vulnerable species listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The Minister for the Environment has a responsibility—or should I say 'had a responsibility', because he has exempted himself from that responsibility—to look after these sharks and the other marine species that are being caught under this appalling policy. He granted an exemption based on a number of conditions, and one of those was that WA would use hooks that were of a size that they would cause as little harm as possible to smaller sharks. That is not what is happening, because the vast majority of sharks being caught on these drum lines are under three metres long. The Barnett government are not meeting that condition. Clause 23 of the exemption says that, if they are not meeting the conditions outlined in paragraph 17, including the one I just outlined, the policy should be reviewed and the exemption could be revoked.

This policy should be revoked immediately. It is harming sharks. It is harming marine ecosystems and has no place in the management of marine ecosystems. But I suppose we should not be surprised, given that it is the Abbott government that essentially suspended our world-leading national system of marine protected areas. Last December, as the parliament rose, the Abbott government—again, in secrecy—essentially abandoned the marine protection management system. It is basically now lines on maps. What else could I expect, really, from the federal government but for them to wash their hands of the need to protect a vulnerable species? The great white shark is a vulnerable species. The government have not relied on the science on this. It is a knee-jerk reaction. The exemption should be revoked, and the cull should be abandoned because it is not achieving what the Barnett government said it would achieve. It is taking undersized sharks and it had led to the death of four tiger sharks— (Time expired)