Grievance Debate

Rock Lobster Industry

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:09): I rise today to make comment on the announcement last week by the Prime Minister that the trade ban on rock lobster will be lifted by the end of the year. I know that the Premier has also made commentary about the lifting of this ban, as has the trade minister, but what really does make me wonder is that I met with the federal trade minister this time last year, and he said that the ban on rock lobster would be lifted by Christmas—he did not tell me which year—but what we are seeing currently is that the PM has announced it.

The rock lobster industry is in a state of confusion. At the moment, there is a ban that is going to be lifted by the end of the year. What does that mean? Let's unpack what it means to an industry that has been on its knees for four years. That represents about 70 per cent of the lobster fishing businesses. They are family-owned. Each of those families has lost between $1½ million to $1.8 million, and that is an industry loss of around $400 million of gross state product.

The confusion is around the timing of when this ban will be lifted. We have a federal government and state government that are happy to jump on the bandwagon and take the credit for it. We know that recently the trade minister was denied a meeting with the Chinese Premier. They did not want to talk about lobster—they wanted to talk about pandas—yet today we are looking at an industry that is now wondering where their destiny lies. There is no agreed timetable.

We have to understand that this is a national issue; it is not just a South Australian issue. What it means to many of those fishing families is incredibly important—to understand the timetable, to understand when that ban will be lifted so that they can actually utilise their best fishing times, utilise their individual quota. If we take a look back over those four years, the ban was put on that industry for heavy metal detection within those fish and yet we have no idea what the details will be on testing of that product, whether it is on shore here or whether it is on wharf when it reaches its destination.

I have met with a number of southern rock lobster fisherman, as I have with the western zone fishermen. They are all asking the pertinent questions about the future of this season: what does it mean to them? How long will it all roll out? Will biosecurity measures be put into place? Where is the compliance? Of course, SafeFish accreditation must be used to give the industry the certainty. As I asked, will the lobster be checked here, or will it be a surprise when they get over to the Chinese wharves and have those fish checked? It is a very uncertain future for the lobster fishermen.

I spoke to a number of fishermen over in the western zone. They are currently wondering whether they continue fishing this season, because they are still not guaranteed that the ban will be lifted. They have had political-speak that has not really given them the surety that they need in making sure that they can get on with earning a living and making sure that their industry is viable.

We also have to remember that the Chinese New Year festival kicks off on 29 January next year. We need to better understand when we get lobster onto a plane. We need to understand how much lobster can be booked into those planes. We have to remember that there are limited numbers of planes going to China. Western Australia are the largest lobster producer, and they are now wondering whether they book the planes and pay the money, and it will come at a cost. Here in South Australia we, too, want to put our rock lobster into bellies of planes, get it into China and make sure that we can put some of the world's best rock lobster on the plates and tables of our Chinese customers.

The premium price will be realised. Currently, the price for rock lobster is around $61. That premium into China will see an additional $10 to $15 a kilo. That is make or break for these lobster fishermen. It is critically important that we make sure that the industry is given the transparency they need to make these big decisions, because over the last four years they have seen a continual loss of revenue that is affecting the fleet and it is affecting those fishermen.

What I am worried about is that the government at the moment are playing Pied Piper to the lobster industry. They are pointing all boats, all planes to China with rock lobster, and yet over the four-year period what have we seen with the diversity of rock lobster? What are we seeing to give surety that we do not put all the eggs into the China basket and see what we have just seen over the last four years?