Community & Business
18 October, 2023
No science … no evidence … no consultation
“IT’S quite sickening for me to watch what is happening to our fishermen,” KAP Leader Robbie Katter said about the government’s moves to ban net fishing in parts of the Gulf of Carpentaria by 31 March, 2024.
Mr Katter spoke in Parliament in Brisbane last Wednesday before attending a meeting of Gulf fishermen in Karumba last Thursday about the government’s “sell-out” of North Queensland’s commercial fishing sector.
“This is not right. There is no end to the cost for fishermen from this move – their mental health and worse.
“Some people will pay the highest price for this,” Mr Katter said.
“And all this when there is no science behind these closures, no evidence … and no consultation.”
– Carroll Bros, Bevan Carroll
Bevan Carroll said it was the same old story, with the Labor Government trying to destroy yet another industry.
“The whole fishing industry is sustainable – there is no reason for these closures,” Mr Carroll said.
They are closing these zones but not giving us any science – any evidence – behind the closures.
“They clearly have other agendas and are just using us as the sacrificial lambs,” Mr Carroll said.
Mr Carroll said more than 50 jobs were at stake at Carroll Bros, with their fishing company, four boats (two mackerel and two barramundi boats in the Gulf), wholesale and retail operations.
“We’ve spent a lot of money already on the new Cold Storage Facility but we’ve stopped now just to see what is going to happen.”
– Weipa fisherman, Shane Snow
Vice President of the Seafood Association of Queensland and local Weipa fisherman, Shane Snow, said he was appalled by the attitude of government officials who had told him to just “rip the band-aid off and get it done”.
“I don’t class the extermination of generational fishing families with tens of millions of dollars tied up in assets as trivial as ripping a band-aid off,” he said.
“This is generational, this is people’s lives we are talking about; we are talking about mental health, we are talking about people on suicide watch (as a result of this).”
Mr Snow was speaking at the Karumba meeting, the Gulf of Carpentaria Commercial Fishers Association AGM, attended by more than 50 North and Far North Queensland fishermen.
Mr Katter said he was so proud of the people of Karumba including one operator who spoke at the meeting of all the efforts that have been made in the last 30 years to ensure the industry was sustainable – the net free zones, the expanded spawning seasons, the closed off rivers and creeks. “No credit has been given for that”.
He said the response from the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Mark Furner was to outline a mental health and wellness program, Stay Afloat.
Mr Katter said the public needed to know Minister Furner, alongside the State and Federal Environment Ministers, were taking policy cues and direction from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and UNESCO who have both placed pressure on Australia to phase out gill net fishing to “protect endangered species”.
“Karumba, where I represent, will be cut in half and businesses in places in Townsville, Cairns, Mareeba and Weipa will be sent to the wall.
“All North Queensland MPs, and especially the Member for Cook (Cynthia Lui), need to stand up on this and the Minister and Premier need to indicate where their allegiances lie.”
“That just poses the question, will she stand with us – we’ll have no chance otherwise,” he said.
“We could build a force in the north and Cook could play a strong role in that. If we could see a strong statement like that – we could turn this around.
“The implications of this are that businesses will be essentially outlawed and communities and local economies starved of activity and fresh and sustainable wild caught North Queensland seafood will be taken off the menu for the many Australians who love it,” he said.
“This will transfer the demand and the subsequent fishing effort into places like Indonesia, which is already densely populated and over-fished.”
– KAP Candidate for Cook, Bruce Logan
The KAP’s candidate for Cook, Bruce Logan, also wants Cook’s Cynthia Lui to explain to fishermen face-to-face the rationale for eliminating the commercial fishing industry in the Cape.
“I am asking Cynthia Lui to come up to Weipa and look the fisherman in the eye and tell them why family businesses which have been flourishing for four generations are now about to be gutted,” he said.
Mr Logan said the impact of the proposal to ban gillnets would reverberate throughout the entire North Queensland economy.
“You can’t shut down an entire industry, which has been the economic lifeblood of communities for generations, and not expect consequences,” he said.
– Federal Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald
Federal Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald said the Australian fishing industry is one she is really proud of.
“Much like our other farmers, and foresters, we do it to a very high standard. We’ve got sustainability requirements, environmental requirements, stock levels … fishermen really know what they are doing.
“But to have our own Australian Government go out and commit to stopping their fishing on the Great Barrer Reef and the Gulf, without consultation … it’s outrageous.”
