Adjournment Debate

NORTHERN ZONE ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:10): There are two subjects that I want to talk about this afternoon. Yesterday, I raised in this house the issue of the pressure that the rock lobster fishery in South Australia is under, particularly the northern zone. I am very concerned about what is going on in relation to the fishery. I urge the minister to meet with representatives of the northern zone rock lobster fishery. There seems to be an orchestrated and calculated attempt by the bureaucracy to weasel more money out of less income for these fishermen on the surmise that the fishery is under threat. That fishery is not under threat. It is not under threat in any way, shape or form. Indeed, the biomass over the last year or two has been terrific; it has picked up substantially. Bureaucrats sitting in their offices, shuffling pieces of paper and writing things down and jostling figures tend not to understand how things work in the real world.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think that was something that the former member for Stuart referred to frequently, member for Finniss.

Mr PENGILLY: You are getting my time, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am sorry.

Mr PENGILLY: Yes, he may well have done. However, the reality is that whether you farm on the sea or farm on the land, it does not much matter; you have good seasons and you have bad seasons. If our fisheries in South Australia had been absolutely thrashed for the last 50 years, I could understand this desire to further limit the restrictions on the lobster quota in the northern zone. I understand that the Hon. Mr Pegler also has deep involvement with the rock lobster fishery in the southern zone.

Why should I have to have cray fishermen coming to me—and they are more than welcome to come to me—bewailing the fact that the fisheries department is simply not listening to what they have to say. They are juggling figures, they are writing things down, but they do not understand the fishery. They are not out there on the boats, they are not harvesting the catch from the sea, and they do not know how seasons work from one year to another. So, it is absolutely outrageous that the department is looking at a further cut in quota for the northern zone rock lobster fishery. It is absolutely outrageous. It will put families out of business, it will put people out of work, it will impact on the economic circumstances—in this case, the towns and Kangaroo Island businesses, fuel suppliers, bait suppliers, the whole lot. It is absolutely outrageous.

I would hope that the government (and it is a vain hope) and particularly the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries—or whatever he is called today; it seems to change fairly regularly—would get hold of these people and say, 'What is the real truth?', because I can tell you that the real truth is not coming out. We have to have industry. We have a wonderful fishery across South Australia. Whether it be prawns, rock lobster, squid fishing, scale fishing, net fishing, or whatever, it has all been run particularly well over a number of years, and the fact that they are still in business is indicative of the way they have managed their industry in conjunction with, in the past, reasonable people in the fisheries department.

I do not know who is puffing wind in the wrong place at the moment, because I do not believe that the department does know what is going on. My suspicions are that it has been told by the Sustainable Budget Commission that it will have to save money or find more money to operate fisheries. What is happening is that they say, 'We will put the charges and the licence fees up for fishermen and, while we're at it, we will cut quotas again.' There has been a 34 per cent quota cut this season just finished and, if there is another quota cut, we will have a lot more people going to Centrelink looking for money, because it is not at all sustainable to cut quotas. It would be absolutely nonsensical to do so. If there were no biomass improvements—as there have been—I could understand it.

I am disappointed that the fishermen feel the way they do. We went through the cockle fishery expedition with the former minister, the Hon. Rory McEwen. The member for Hammond and I actually worked on a committee to fix that up; and we did fix that up. There was more sense used and they actually listened to us. The fisheries officers from the department that were involved there, were most helpful and useful in that they listened to us. However, in this particular case with the rock lobster fishery, they had better start listening, and I hope my colleague, the member for Mount Gambier, will possibly pick this up on his own as well, or the member for MacKillop even, because they both have coasts that are associated with rock lobster.

On another subject, this afternoon in the house, I asked a question in relation to the Kangaroo Island doctors and the situation with the contracts. I cannot believe the manner in which the doctors on Kangaroo Island were treated this afternoon. They were twice accused of blackmail by the minister. I think it is absolutely outrageous to accuse them of blackmail. Conveniently, the facts have not all come out on this, but they will come out now—trust me. What will now happen is that I will come back into this place and produce for the house evidence of what has really happened with some of the incompetencies that have been carried out by some—and I say some—locums who have been operating on the island.

I will come back with that and I will read it into the house, so that the house knows the real story. For the minister this afternoon to accuse the KI doctors of blackmail is an absolutely scurrilous attack on their integrity. It will go down like a lead balloon in the community, and I am sure that the Rural Doctors Association will not take it lightly. For them to have some of their colleagues referred to as blackmailers is absolutely unbelievable. It is not in the best interests of the medical future of country South Australia; it is definitely not in the best interests of the health services on the island.

I take great pride in the Kangaroo Island health service and have done for many, many years. We have had a succession of good operating managers there for a long period of time and I have had a deep involvement in it. I intend to put the full story on the record for the house when we next sit, and I will leave nothing uncovered. In saying that, in my view, the minister should apologise to those doctors. He should have the courage of his convictions to come back and apologise for calling them blackmailers, because they are not blackmailers. They are simply trying to provide a service for a community, at a reasonable cost.

The Hon. J.D. Hill interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: If the minister wants to speak, I suggest he return to his seat. If he wants to interject, he should do it from his seat. Trust me, this has not finished.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would like to apologise to the member for Finniss for taking possibly 10 to 20 seconds out of his time, but it was true that the Hon. Graham Gunn had a great dislike of what he called civil servants. What were they called?

Mr Pengilly: Parasites.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Not parasites, member for Finniss! 'Sir Humphreys', he called them.