Labor/Greens declare war on Australian fishing
14th June, 2012
‘GONE fishing’ is the catchcry for many Australians come the weekend, but a new Labor/Greens decree to lock-up an additional 2.6 million km2 (37%) of our seas will hang a ‘fishing gone’ sign over much of Australia’s coastline.Media reports suggest Julia Gillard and Tony Burke may be headed to the United Nation’s Rio+20 Conference in Brazil next week and are likely to laud themselves for creating the biggest marine park in the world, locking out Australian commercial and recreational fishing.
“When ‘lock it up’ is the government’s approach to vast areas of Australia’s territorial waters is it any wonder our supermarkets are overflowing with imported seafood?” Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss said today.
“We control much of the planet’s oceans, more than practically any other country, yet we cannot feed ourselves on our own fish.
“There is no doubt we need to conserve our oceans and be conscious of breeding grounds and seasons to sensibly harvest the seas. Our fishing industry understands that only too well and is at the forefront of managing sustainable fisheries.
‘But bit-by-bit Labor and The Greens, buoyed by ideology rather than sound science, have been shutting out commercial and recreational fishers.
“Now the Gillard government is proclaiming a massive network of marine ‘no go zones’ that cover much of Australia’s coastline and reaches to the 200 nautical mile limit of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.”
According to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities website the new fishing ‘no go zones’ include:
* South West Region (SA-WA): stretching from Kangaroo Island in SA to Shark Bay in WA, with 40% of the ocean in marine parks and major restrictions on fishing covering over half a million square kilometres.
* North-West Region (WA-NT): from Shark Bay to the WA/NT border, almost 380,000 square kilometres of ocean (or 38% of the region) will become marine parks, with major fishing restrictions covering more than 100,000 square kilometres.
* Northern Region (NT-QLD): from the WA/NT border to the Gulf of Carpentaria, almost 20% or 121,000 square kilometres will be marine parks. In particular, this will have a profound impact on the prawn industry.
* Coral Sea (QLD): all of the 1,000,000 square kilometre Coral Sea, stretching along the eastern seaboard from Cape York to offshore of Bundaberg in Queensland will be marine park, with a total ban on any extractive activity covering just over half the area. This includes areas beyond the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park where 34% of the park is already off limits.
* Temperate East Region (QLD-NSW): from Bundaberg to Bateman’s Bay in NSW will have 371,000 square kilometres of ocean, or 25.3% of its area, put into marine parks with varying levels of restrictions.
“Labor’s ham-fisted handling of marine park development is heavily influenced by its determination to maximise Green preferences,” Mr Truss added. “That means tossing commercial and recreational fishing overboard, including local jobs and the right of families to throw in a line, just to hook a few city votes.
“The writing has been on the wall since May 2009 when Labor declared the Coral Sea a Conservation Zone with no justification beyond toadying to The Greens.
“Only the Coalition is making good on the bipartisan commitment to sensible marine park development that takes heed of social and economic impacts.
“Under Labor, community consultation has been a sham and we’ve seen a complete about-face on the commitment to minimise socio-economic fallout.
“The Coalition will conduct a science-based review of this net of knee-jerk declarations and, instead of Green dogma, restore commonsense by taking a balanced account of the economic, social and environmental considerations in the process.”
[ENDS]
