Fishing Industry, Quotas
Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (2.06 pm): Alarm bells are ringing up and down the coast as the government pushes ahead with slashing fishing quotas. It is unfair and destroying small businesses. Coastal LNP members are being inundated with calls from desperate and devastated commercial fishers. Fishers are being left high and dry as a result of Fisheries Queensland’s crab and other fisheries quota clawback. Clearly, the proposed draft allocations are designed to shock these family-owned businesses and force them out of fishing. Under the proposed changes, crab fishery allocations will receive between 40 to 68 percent of their average catch, resulting in an average 30 to 60 percent loss of income.
Hervey Bay’s fourth generation fishermen Tony Simpson contacted me in sheer desperation that the department and minister are willfully ignoring the impact these changes will have on fishing businesses. Under the changes, Tony will be left with a completely unviable allocation. It is so unviable that this is likely to be his last year of fishing in Queensland, marking the end of 42 years of fishing. Countless fishermen like him have had their investments gutted, with crab licenses dropping $40,000 overnight. The industry has been left in the dark about being shown the justification, science, and rationale behind the quota changes. Despite the enormous impacts from these changes, the government refuses to conduct an open and transparent regulatory impact statement—just like it refused with the botched VMS rollout. We are seeing a repeat of the spanner crab and coral trout quotas that have devastated commercial fishers.
How many hits do these hardworking family businesses have to take from this government’s anti-fishing agenda? Queenslanders have the right to access their share of a public resource in the ocean by either fishing themselves or buying seafood caught by commercial fishers. Not everyone has the time or opportunity to go fishing. That is why we need a viable commercial fishing industry. Queensland’s fishery stocks are in great shape according to the 2018 Australian fish stock reports. Where is this anti-fishing agenda coming from? Minister, it is time to put science and transparency into fisheries. Go back to the drawing board with these unfair quota allocations.
It is no secret Queensland’s commercial fishing industry has been declining for the past 20 years. Hundreds of commercial fishers have left the industry in that time. For years Labor has not supported the hundreds of family commercial fishing businesses that supply us with some of the finest catch in the world.
The LNP understands and fights for the hardworking men and women in Queensland’s fisheries. Only the LNP support seafood labeling laws that will boost local fisheries sales. All Labor offers is more ideologically driven red tape designed to push more and more people out of the industry. It is not good enough.