Shark Control Program, Inquiry
1. Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (4.57 pm): I move that the State Development, Natural Resources and Agricultural Industry Development Committee inquire into the Queensland shark control program and report to the Legislative Assembly by 16 May 2019.
2. In conducting the inquiry, the committee should specifically consider:
(a) the effectiveness of the existing program, which has been in place since 1962, to protect community safety;
(b) existing locations that are monitored under the program and whether this should be expanded to other key tourism areas like the Whitsundays;
(c) the use of existing equipment, such as nets and drum lines, and consideration of alternative devices to protect human life and other marine life;
(d) research and expert advice into shark population growth and breeding patterns;
(e) resourcing needed to enhance the existing program;
(f) the Palaszczuk government’s response to initial shark attacks in Cid Harbour to install drum lines and the consequent failure to do so after a fatal attack; and
(g) the cause of the reduction in shark numbers caught between 2015-16 and 2018-19 and the impact of this reduction on shark numbers on the Queensland coast.
3. In conducting the inquiry, the committee should have regard to international best practice of mitigating the risk of shark attacks and any previous Queensland coronial investigations or inquiries into shark related fatalities.
4. The committee should also consider the impact of shark attacks on Queensland’s domestic and international tourism reputation, noting that the industry provides almost $13 billion to Queensland’s gross state product and sustains almost 220,000 local jobs.
We need to properly manage the problem of sharks. A talkfest and a five-point plan are lazy and
superficial. We need practical, common-sense solutions to protect lives. Our first and most critical
priority is to protect lives. This inquiry is about the ongoing shark management program and how to
alleviate problems.
You will never get rid of the problem of sharks. This is not about culls and emotive responses.
Any shark attack is immensely concerning. When it is deadly and follows on from other attacks, a
responsible government considers the effectiveness of the existing program. Nothing highlights
government ineptitude more than thinking that a talkfest substitutes for good management. A talkfest
that comes up with a predictable list of more research, more education and more signs, while ruling out
successful measures such as drum lines and shark nets, is not good management.
For the government to dismissively tell local families and tourists not to swim is just shallow and
flippant. It is disgraceful yapping. Its priorities are wrong. It puts sharks before people. It puts the
environmental movement before people and regional tourism businesses. We need this inquiry because
all the government has offered Queensland families, tourists and businesses is a harebrained and
negligent plan. It refuses to address management practices. Instead, it wants yet another study into
shark behaviour.
Yesterday, the minister for fisheries boasted about spending $250,000 to work out if there is a
shark problem in Cid Harbour. I have news for the minister. In the past six weeks, there have been
three attacks. There has been a fatal attack. Everyone else in Queensland knows we have a problem.
They do not need to spend $250,000 on another study to tell them that.
The government’s scientific working group is not only not working; it is actively considering
phasing out drum lines over the next five years. The Queensland shark control program has been in
place since 1962 with full bipartisan support, that is, seemingly until this government was elected. DAF
advises that for more than 50 years under the program there has been only one shark related death at
a controlled beach. That is clear evidence that drum lines and nets have protected swimmers for more
than 50 years.
It is unbelievable that Queensland has 350 drum lines along our coastline protecting 85 beaches
but not a single one in the Whitsundays. Why are drum lines not in Cid Harbour when they are used in
other tourist spots? If they are not an effective management practice, why are they used at 85 other
beaches? Why were they put in following the first two attacks if they are not good management?
The Whitsundays is still just recovering from Cyclone Debbie 18 months ago. Tourism is vital for
this region. For the government to come out and state that tourists cannot swim is ridiculous and
destructive. It puts the region’s economic and business activity at risk.
The government is hiding behind Labor’s Shark Control Program Scientific Working Group—a
group which is literally not working. In complete disregard for the safety of Queenslanders, the group is
not meeting when it is meant to. It is dominated by conservation groups. They are even looking at
options to phase out drum lines over the next five years.
It has not formally met since the first attacks in Cid Harbour six weeks ago yet they are meant to
meet twice a year and were scheduled to meet in September/October. After submissions from
conservationists the group is not considering any new drum lines in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
and is investigating phasing them out over the next five years.
This government is soft on sharks because Labor is soft on sharks. Look no further than a recent
Senate inquiry. The minister is familiar with a Senate inquiry. As a Labor senator his party was
influenced by green activists who inspired federal Labor’s decimation of our live cattle industry in 2011.
Last year the Senate environment committee, chaired by the Greens with a Labor majority,
recommended that Queensland immediately replace drum lines and phase out shark meshing
programs.
Following this recommendation would be catastrophic for Queensland families and tourists.
Shark attracts would be prolific with no safety measures for the hundreds of thousands of
Queenslanders who regularly visit the controlled beaches. Labor’s inability to keep our waters safe risks
hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. Queensland is in a dire
situation where the state Labor government is seemingly following the orders of their federal masters
who want to completely remove all shark safety measures from Queensland beaches.