Abbot takes stand on Federal Fisheries policy

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/7653559/abbott-promises-drastic-fisheries-overhaul/ quote:

 

"The Federal Opposition has made a pitch to commercial and recreational fishermen promising to suspend the current process that decides what parts of Australia's coastlines should be given environmental protection.

 

Speaking at a fish market in the central Queensland town of Mackay, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised that if the coalition won power it would suspend the marine bioregional planning process. Mr Abbott also promised that the Fisheries Minister under a Coalition government would have equal say as the environment minister over what areas should be given protection.

 

"This is a very important issue right around Australia," Mr Abbott said. "Certainly this is an issue that is deeply troubling regional Australia and it is an issue that is deeply troubling people who enjoy fishing."

 

Mr Abbott also promised that under a Coalition government all future decisions on marine protected areas would be considered using peer reviewed scientific evidence that would be made available to all stakeholders, including local communities and fishing industries.

 

The bioregional planning program, being worked on by the Federal Government for more than 12 months, is designed to provide a clearer focus on the protection, conservation and sustainable use of Australia's marine environment. It was expected that a draft network of proposed marine reserves and their zoning would be made available within the next few months. The North-West and South-West waters of WA was scheduled to fall under the draft plan with local environment groups pushing for a vast swathe of the Indian and Southern oceans to fall under the plan. Currently only one per cent of WA waters are protected by marine sanctuaries. WA conservation groups were shocked by the announcement.

 

Save Our Marine Life spokesman Tim Nicol said Mr Abbott was clearly out of touch with Western Australia on marine protection. "Polling last week in WA showed that 8-in-10 WA voters support high levels of marine protection and a recent independent economic study showed that marine sanctuaries would help boost our southwest tourism industries to $55 million per year," he said.

 

Touring the fish market earlier Mr Abbott, along with his daughter Louise, gutted a fish for the television cameras" _______________________________________________________________________________________________

So Abott now takes a stand of Fisheries, this should be interesting! this flies in the Face of Jessica and her gangs approach to fish protection!

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Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)


tournament's picture

Posts: 376

Date Joined: 10/11/09

barnett said there would be

Tue, 2010-07-27 15:04

barnett said there would be no closure on the west coast region now they talkin only 1 demersal fish per person dont trust any of them they promise the world and give you gilligans island

Posts: 28

Date Joined: 11/02/10

Time to make a difference

Tue, 2010-07-27 21:16

Hi Guys

You can be a synical as you want but we have a decision to make in the next couple of weeks.

Lets face it a vote for labour is a vote for the greens and that means bigger marine expansions. A vote for the coalition will mean at the very least a stay of execution and hopefully some input into the parks we want. Colbeck from the nationals did a hell of a lot with the support of the fisherman to overturn the mako ban and he was standing with Abbott at the announcement.

I will be voting for the coalition in the lower house and the shooters and fishing party in the senate. Both these parties have at least made helpful comments for the fishing cause. The shooters and fishing party traditionally support labour however because of the deals between the greens and labour they have been left out in the cold. IT IS CRITICALLY impotant that the Greens do NOT hold the balance of power or then we really are s.....d.

Think long and hard guys this is a pinnacle election.

I must also profess to being an absolute swinging voter and have pretty much voted for all parties in the past, from my observation a coalition shooter/fishings vote is the best option.

Cheers

BIG

Shorty's picture

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I don't like Abbot but i

Tue, 2010-07-27 20:01

I don't like Abbot but i like Gillard,,,but its looks like Abbot will get my vote after reading the above.

HuggyB's picture

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Date Joined: 03/08/08

I get a sense of deja vu

Tue, 2010-07-27 20:28

all over again.

 

Do you work for the Libs Tony? You certainly get out there and push their barrow at any oppurtunity....

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                    The Terrorist - coming to a fishing spot near you.........

Feral's picture

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what a load of B/S ... look

Tue, 2010-07-27 20:58

what a load of B/S ... look at what the libs are doing in this state .. ive always been a liberal voter but i'll be stuffed if im voting for them any time soon. . if you think they are not going to scr$w us on a national level when they are stuffing W.A. you can think again BIG  

Posts: 28

Date Joined: 11/02/10

Should you separate State issues with federal issues

Tue, 2010-07-27 21:35

I have a great affinity with WA my sister lives their and always fish when I visit, your fishing is much better than in sydney.

I really think the greens have done such a preference deal with the labour party that when they call in their favours on marine parks who knows where it will end.

Posts: 171

Date Joined: 20/04/09

yeah right on feral look at

Tue, 2010-07-27 21:14

yeah right on feral look at the fups were getting at the moment what 4 kg next year its liberal thats doin it not labour Australia is goin to shit big time think its time to start lookin for a country that dosent take the DUTY OF CARE SHIT SO FAR what is wrong with this place why is every thing goin so far soon you wont be aloud out side with out been in a bubble fishing whats that you might offend some one doin that better ban it

John the Pom's picture

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Date Joined: 22/10/09

Huggy has a point, we've had

Tue, 2010-07-27 22:27

Huggy has a point, we've had a perfectly good thread about the election closed (understandably so). We know who you support Tony, there's no need to keep bringing politics back again.

Tony Halliday's picture

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Date Joined: 14/06/07

it's not just politics this

Wed, 2010-07-28 08:18

it's not just politics this thread,

it's about enviormental marine policy and the effect on fishing ( both Pro & Rec)

I'll stay quiet then, but don't cry when a strong Green presence in the set up of parks and marine areas locks you all out for a LONG time...

JMO

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

Shorty's picture

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Date Joined: 10/05/08

I don't see that he has a

Wed, 2010-07-28 08:28

Johnthepom I don't see that Huggy has a point, i saw the artlice and the first thing that comes to mind is this needs to go on the fishing forumS ASAP,,

 

Any policys regarded fishing from any political party is important to us all.

 

As stated the Greenies want to lock the state out of fishing,,a lot oppose fishing full stop as a cruel and barbaric practise.

HuggyB's picture

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my sense of deja vu

Wed, 2010-07-28 13:36

was nothing to do with what John The Pom said.

 

It was merely pointing to the fact that last state election the big push was vote liberal to make sure there were no changes to fishing regulations, no 3 month ban etc etc. Well thus far they have cut back catches, increased levies, abolished blanket licenses, introduced more licenses, increased trailer and boat rego, invoked more marine parks and so on - a lot of the promises where washed away very quickly once they were in power. And what about all the money raised from licenses going back into fishing? Haven't seen much to support that, have you? All empty promises to garner votes, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Now we have Mr Abbott making a comment on the fly in a regional fishing town - another off the cuff call to garner votes is all I see.  If he is in power, those promises will all fall by the wayside.

 

Liberal or Labour, increasingly more marine parks are going to happen whether we like it or not.

____________________________________________________________________________

                    The Terrorist - coming to a fishing spot near you.........

Shorty's picture

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Hmm good points there

Wed, 2010-07-28 16:23

Hmm good points there Huggy,,

When they are all a bunch of bullchit artists it makes life twice as difficult on who we vote for,,,we will get screwed whoever gets in tho,,thats something we can put our trust in,,

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Date Joined: 25/05/09

Its not just about bringing

Tue, 2010-07-27 23:10

Its not just about bringing polictics into so we can all have a big whinge , its about our fishing rights and fishing laws etc ! i think good on ya tony

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living is fishing

John the Pom's picture

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They are both fair points,

Wed, 2010-07-28 09:24

They are both fair points, but after previous rants about Liberals in other areas, some balance (conveniently?) has been left out of this. As Feral mentions and in another thread on here that something even more debilitating to fishing in WA is trying to be brought in by the state LIBERAL govt, yet there was no mention of politics in that thread.

 

http://www.perthnow.com.au/lifestyle/new-boat-catch-limit-could-be-one-fish-a-year/story-e6frg3sl-1225897868633

carnarvonite's picture

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Marine parks

Wed, 2010-07-28 09:38

I've got nothing against marine parks as they allow stocks to reach maturity and breed without the risk of being caught, and once an area if over populated they will migrate to adjacent zones . Its like Coral Bay, plenty of fish in the restricted zone spreading out and allowing good catches to be made at Maude's Landing and the south passage areas on either side of it.

Tony Halliday's picture

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100% right Carnavonite, not

Wed, 2010-07-28 10:22

100% right Carnavonite,
not used to justify more lock-ups and before you know it the whole fishable coastline is gone and whats left is either out of range of the average fishermen or too dangerous too fish etc.

if you had 15km wide corridors of no take marine zones every 50km, reaching out say 50km to sea. These bands would be breeding zones and if developed as nuseries / hatcheries with reef balls and other means of accelerating the growth and spawn rates etc, we could have very goo fishing in between these no-go zones.

I want to see a well worded policy on fisheries, both Pro & Rec, as well as tourism in fishing / diving etc from all parties to see the true colours. Thats Libs, Labor & Greens.

If Labor gives the Greens the muscle in the enviromental / fisheries policy, in exchange for preference, then we in for awhole lot worse world of pain as Rec fishermen.

JMO

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

Posts: 1755

Date Joined: 02/01/10

The green groups are trying

Thu, 2010-07-29 12:48

The green groups are trying to create 30% marine parks in Victoria.  Really, they want  much more.  Is it a coincidence that their preferred places for marine parks are adjacent to the most popular tourist towns and the best boat ramps. 

Posts: 28

Date Joined: 11/02/10

This was on the new greens and where they get new candidates

Thu, 2010-07-29 13:05

 

Howes declared in The Sunday Telegraph that the Greens "party is being infiltrated by many whose commitment to the environment is questionable, and who are more focused on turning the Greens into a left-wing, socialist-style party". Earlier, on the The Contrarians program on Sky News, Howes referred to Rhiannon as coming from a family who were "lifelong members of the pro-Stalinist Socialist Party". He went on to warn about the ex-communists and socialists "trying to take over the inner-city branches of the Greens".

Nationals senator Fiona Nash has the third spot on the Coalition's Senate ticket in NSW. Assuming Labor wins three Senate quotas and the Coalition two, the sixth vacancy will likely be contested between Nash and Rhiannon. Here the occasionally soft Coalition types can learn from the tough-minded Howes.

So far, Nash has said little, if anything, about Rhiannon. Sure Rhiannon's resume contains scant material about her radical past. However, the details are set out in Mark Aarons's The Family File, the author's account of his family's long-time membership of the Communist Party of Australia.

Rhiannon is not responsible for the fact she is the daughter of long-time CPA operatives Bill and Freda Brown (no relation to Bob Brown). But she is responsible for continuing the family's tradition as a young adult. In his book, Mark Aarons, the son of Laurie and Carol Aarons, says the Aarons and Brown families tolerated the excesses of communist totalitarianism up until the brutal invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. Then the communist movement split. The Aarons family stood up to Moscow but the Brown family adopted the position of continuing Stalinists and formed the Socialist Party of Australia.

Mark Aarons fell out with Rhiannon in the 1970s when, he claims, she refused to condemn the invasion of Czechoslovakia or the shooting of workers by the Polish communist dictatorship. He writes: "I could not conceive of someone of my age and experience supporting Moscow's policies."

Already there is evident tension between the Greens leadership in Canberra and Rhiannon. This is likely to increase if she wins a Senate vacancy. Howes understands the anti-business, anti-jobs agenda of the radical Greens is contrary to Labor's stance. You have to wonder how long it will take the Coalition to wake up to the fact that the best way to defend Nash is to expose Rhiannon's middle-class radicalism.

Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.

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Lol, sky news!

Thu, 2010-07-29 13:09

Lol, sky news!

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Ewan's picture

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Date Joined: 15/05/06

Sigh sigh sigh

Thu, 2010-07-29 13:25

Quote from Tony Halliday:

"not used to justify more lock-ups and before you know it the whole fishable coastline is gone and whats left is either out of range of the average fishermen or too dangerous too fish etc."

Hysterical much, Tony? Can you please point to a single Marine Park in the world that locks up the whole coastline?

You guys who are against them - have you ever fished off Exmouth? Any problems there? Great Barrier Reef? Any problems? Both places have always been fishing meccas, still are fishing meccas, and partly because of marine parks, are more likely to always be fishing meccas.

Have any of you actually looked into the benefits to fisheries of marine parks and sanctuary zones? As in, actually looked and learnt for yourself?

 

Ewan

Posts: 114

Date Joined: 28/07/10

I have lost areas I used to

Thu, 2010-07-29 14:37

I have lost areas I used to fish in Exmouth, principally the area around from the pier and light house bay itself - both some of the few areas up there that are protected from the screaming southerlies that like to howl up there. But that's OK.

And there have been problems with the zones that have been set up on the GBR.

BUT there are potential benefits to sanctuary zones too - in the right areas.

Ewan it's the process I object to - it alienates anglers for the most part.

 

And make no mistake about it - PEW and their agenda sucks and is incongruous to our past time.

Tony Halliday's picture

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Date Joined: 14/06/07

I have seen it in areas of

Thu, 2010-07-29 15:42

I have seen it in areas of hunting in Africa, where the parks have merged to prevent any hunting, even of ferel and non endagered species by bunny-huggers.

I could lock up 20% of the WA coastline and in real terms cut off 99% off all fishing, just by leaving open areas with no ramps, no access and very bad weather consdtions.

Now if you locked up Mandurah to Jurien, it will be very minimal in terms of taking out say 200km of over 4000km of coastline, but it would cut out what 1,4million of the 2million in the state.
Just look at the areas north of Broome. All open, but who the hell can get to them, same goes for big areas north of Geraldton and south of Exmouth as well...
JMO

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

Rod P's picture

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"Just look at the areas

Fri, 2010-07-30 15:29

"Just look at the areas north of Broome. All open, but who the hell can get to them."

The illegal indonesian fisherman do a good job...Sorry thats not helping!

Posts: 1755

Date Joined: 02/01/10

I dont mind some areas as

Thu, 2010-07-29 13:49

I dont mind some areas as marine parks, but the greens will try to lock us out of our most popular spots.

It would be devastating, as a rec fisho, if we were not allowed to fish the most popular areas eg. Dampier Archipelago or Exmouth.  Where are we going to go if we live in these areas.

Ewan's picture

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Pale Ale, Ningaloo marine

Fri, 2010-07-30 14:43

Pale Ale, Ningaloo marine park already has 30% of its waters in no-take zones. It remains arguably one of the best fishing holiday destinations in the country.

30% is the best-practice figure that green groups and scientists aim for, in order to protect fisheries in the long term.

Alan James's picture

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Greens and their friends prove they live in cartoon land

Thu, 2010-07-29 14:11

Press release from Senator Richard Colbeck.


The Greens and their fringe environmental friends have shown their true colours with a call to base Australia's marine parks policy on a cartoon and not on proper consultation and science.
Following the decision by the Coalition to sensibly suspend the national Marine Bioregional Planning process so that Labor's faulty process could be fixed up, a Greens candidate described the policy as 'flawed'
Greens Candidate for Moreton, Elissa Jenkins said this was because it ignores issues raised in the 2006 Warner Brothers animation Happy Feet. Ms Jenkins said:
"Anyone’s who’s seen the animated children’s film Happy Feet would know that overfishing is the biggest threat facing our fishing and tourism industries – not sanctuaries."

"Does it mean the Greens policy for Australian families is based on the Simpsons?" said Federal Coalition spokesperson for fisheries Senator Richard Colbeck.
"The Greens' statement completely ignores the world-leading management regimes that exist within Australian waters.
"The best way to assess our marine environment is to consult with fishers and impacted communities and to look at the scientific analysis of marine biodiversity."
Senator Colbeck said the criticism by the Greens and their friends in the environmental lobby demonstrated they had either not read the Coalition's marine parks policy or chose to selectively ignore parts of the policy.
"The environmental lobby relies upon demonising the fishing industry – recreational and commercial – without examining the science or practicalities of developing marine parks. They are more interested in tugging heart strings than reading the science.
"Greenpeace are even falsely claiming the Coalition policy "takes us further down the path of having a future without fish"!
"You only have to read the annual fisheries statistics reports released by the bureau of rural Sciences which show Australia's fish stocks, due to world leading management by the fishing sector, are becoming healthier.
"The most worrying part is that Labor has done a backroom preference deal with the same people who make such outlandish claims. And as a result of this grubby Labor-Green deal, the Greens and their fringe environmental friends could well take control of the Senate.
"That would be one disastrous cartoon best left on the cutting room floor."

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Ewan's picture

Posts: 271

Date Joined: 15/05/06

Cheap, and very

Fri, 2010-07-30 14:48

Cheap, and very unintelligent arguments there Alan (and Sen Colbeck).

It seems the makers of Happy Feet are more informed by the science than the Honourable Senator Colbeck.

That does not bode well.

Both Labour and Liberal say they will consult with fishing industry and scientists to come up with a plan - there is no difference between the two. Labour has progressed a Howard Govt initiative to implement a system of marine reserves around the country. Abbott it seems is looking for cheap and meaningless points by saying he will stall it and basically, start it again.