Page 3585 - Week 11 - Thursday, 16 November 2006
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opinion polling indicate that the electoral fallout will be worse than the backlash from industry lobby groups.
I note Mrs Dunne’s comments yesterday about the sudden explosion of green rhetoric coming from the government benches. I have noticed that too, at both federal and territory levels. But politically driven or not—I do not believe that this particular initiative is politically driven—this bill is a step in the right direction. I congratulate the government and the minister on their carriage of this issue.
Large sea urchins, known as centrostephanus rogersi, have been moving steadily southwards since the late 1980s. They are voracious feeders and responsible for denuding and seriously damaging large areas of marine habitat. It is believed the problem is caused by a combination of global warming effects on ocean temperatures and currents, as well as by previous officially sanctioned overfishing of their natural predators such as rock lobsters. These sea urchins are a major threat to southern Australian and Tasmanian fisheries. It is sad that it takes such a catastrophic decline in population to generate environmentally responsible action.
In this case, the commercial value of rock lobster and abalone is presumably what has driven their identification as a priority species under this bill. I would like to see any endangered marine species and many threatened species being listed as priority species, with appropriate trafficking deeming provisions and similarly punitive measures implemented to protect them from further decline and possible extinction.
Just as with drugs, consumer demand lies at the heart of this problem. All the policing in the world is not going to stop unscrupulous people from risking their liberty if a quick buck is to be made. In fact, just as with drugs, increasing the penalties increases the price and increases the monetary attraction for illegal traffickers. Unlike drugs, this is not a health or self-esteem issue. Unlike drugs, there is a ceiling price above which illegal seafood cannot rise. That is set by the cost of legally available abalone and rock lobster.
The federal government body charged with regulating the bulk of Australia’s fishing effort is the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, or AFMA. AFMA has for a long time been focused on building and maintaining good relations with the fishing industry and, coincidentally, in keeping coalition members in their coastal electorates. This has resulted in fishing industry lobbies having a disproportionate and often self-defeating influence on fisheries management. Unfortunately, the coalition is now running out of fish species to sacrifice for short-term political advantage.
Having said that, I must put on the record my belief that AFMA has a large number of dedicated, professional and highly skilled staff. Sadly, they are constantly let down by political interference from coalition fisheries ministers who lack ecological expertise or concern. Eric Abetz joins a long and undistinguished line of duds in the position of fisheries minister.
Of course, here in the ACT we do not have a fisheries minister. In fact, I believe we did not even have an environment minister for a short time. I wonder if Labor’s newfound environmental enthusiasm will mean we get a change in administrative arrangements before long, to bring the environment portfolio to the forefront where it
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