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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-11 Daily Xml
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MARINE PARKS

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:15): Today I would like to talk about marine parks and sanctuary zones. It is a subject I have talked about in the past and we seem to be getting to the pointy end of the marine park process. Despite the best efforts of the opposition and the industries involved, the government seems persistent and intent on rolling out its sanctuary zones.

In the next few weeks and months, rolling out as far as October 2014, wild catch fishers will be receiving letters from the government in an effort to reduce their catch and in an attempt to reduce their effort. It is all about removing effort from the waters of South Australia; unfortunately, it is going to be about removing people from viable fishing industries and coastal communities as well.

There are 19 marine parks around the state. Ten of them are adjacent to the seat of Flinders and contained with that are many of the sanctuary zones, which will be no-go zones as far as the fishers are concerned. The fishing industries that are particularly going to be affected are rock lobster, abalone, the marine scalefish industry and also the charter boat, which is a not insignificant part of the tourism effort, not just on Eyre Peninsula and the West Coast but also around the Kangaroo Island area and Yorke Peninsula and, I am sure, in the South-East as well.

I particularly wanted to talk about rock lobster today because in my mind it would seem that that is the industry that is to be most affected. There are two zones within South Australia: the southern zone which fishes off the coast of the South-East of South Australia and the northern rock lobster zone which fishes on the West Coast, Eyre Peninsula, a big catch off Kangaroo Island and also Yorke Peninsula. It would seem to me that these are the fishers who are most likely to be impacted significantly, at least, by the sanctuary zones.

The rock lobster fishery has existed and has been fished for almost 100 years. Its science has proved that it is a benign industry. It has been well-managed and, in fact, a friend of mine who fishes in the industry says he has never seen the ocean look so good. It has never been better as far as fisheries go, and that is not just rock lobster but other fish as well—tuna, for example, and also sardines.

In 2003 there was an effort made to reduce the number of licences and also reduce the quota in rock lobster in the northern rock lobster zone. It was reduced because it was recognised that there was a drop in the catch. That has achieved the desired effect and catches are at a point now where they are sustainable, profitable and productive. Unfortunately, the sanctuary zones are going to remove those areas that are most productive and that are the best catch areas for rock lobster.

There is no doubt that this effort by the government to reduce the fishing effort will cost jobs. It will cost not just direct jobs in the fishing industry but also in the processing plants that are around our coast. It will cost coastal communities and it will cost the state in lost production and in fact it is going to cost our taxpayers. If I can just read, for the benefit of the house, a letter from the northern rock lobster zone to the government:

The areas targeted by your marine parks—

meaning sanctuary zones—

are our highest catch areas, meaning fishermen will need to find new ground, and also be forced to fish less productive ground. Make no mistake about the financial impact this will have on the industry, as fuel costs and labour costs will skyrocket...these less productive areas will be further impacted by more intensive fishing effort—exactly the opposite of what you should want to achieve from a conservation point of view.

So, this misguided effort is not just costing the fishing industry but also costing the state and the taxpayer. There has been an attempt to estimate the effect on the fishing industry. With the rock lobster industry, there has been an estimation that it will have a 5.7 per cent effect on the fishery. That fishery is worth $250 million of economic activity to the state, so we're talking tens of millions of dollars of lost effort and production.

This demonstrates the government's lack of appreciation of the contribution this fishery makes, not just to the finances of the state, but to the valuable employment opportunities in regional areas. I can guarantee the current marine park sanctuary zone plan will cost jobs and it will cost money. Slowly but surely, this Labor government is shutting this state down. We are propping up industries that are in decline and constraining or reducing those that are making a real contribution to the state, and it is no wonder we find ourselves in a dire financial situation.

Time expired.

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