Rock Lobster Fishery
Ms FINLAY question to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRIES and WATER, Ms PALMER:
I thank the Minister for prioritising the completion of the Living Marine Resources Management Act. That needs to happen before any significant changes happen to the Rock Lobster Fishery industry.
Given that this critical work has not happened, how can you possibly guarantee that no small fishers will be worse off as a result of the proposed expansion to the 60-pot area in the Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishery?
May 26, 2022 - 10:31am
Video - YouTube
Ms FINLAY question to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRIES and WATER, Ms PALMER:
In emails to you, rock lobster fishers from across Tasmania have uncharacteristically shared their vulnerabilities and deep distress at your proposal to expand the 60-pot area, and shared their concerns about the consequences this will have for them, their livelihoods, their families and their communities.
They really hoped you had listened. However, yesterday, you responded to their deeply personal stories with a 'copy and paste' letter including proforma template fields. In one part, the letter read: [add the word 'not' if they support the 60-pot area] Imagine how utterly disrespected our rock lobster fishers are feeling right now.
What do you say to them today to give confidence that you will now genuinely consider their interests when making a decision about your proposal to expand the 60-pot area?
August 18, 2022 - 10:57am
Video - YouTube
Ms FINLAY question to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRIES and WATER, Ms PALMER:
Last week in response to a question about small, single-handed rock lobster fishers, who make an incredible contribution to regional Tasmania, you said: 'I sat at different wharves around our state just waiting for fishers to come in and have just sat and talked to them, just honest and open conversations'.
Which specific wharves did you sit at and how many small, single-handed fishers did you sit and have honest, open conversations with on these wharves across Tasmania?
August 23, 2022 - 10:36am
Video - YouTube
Ms FINLAY question to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRIES and WATER, Ms PALMER:
It was reported in The Examiner that the pro-forma letter you mistakenly sent to rock lobster fishers was sent to four fishers, only four.
Yesterday, you said: 'Last week you highlighted an administrative error that came out of my office and I thank you for that because I was able to pick up the phone straight away and apologise to the people I had done that to, and they were fantastic. They were quite surprised I had picked up the phone and we ended up having lovely conversations'.
Minister, I have picked up the phone and I have spoken to two of these fishers, Adam and Geoff, who are doing it really tough with the massive stress of this process. They both told me yesterday that you did not call them personally. You say the only thing they are surprised about, to quote you yesterday, is that you would try to pretend that you had spoken to them when you have not. They feel, to quote Geoff, 'like they have had a kick in the guts'.
They have lost their confidence that you would genuinely consider their interests, their families and the community in your upcoming decision. Why did you say you called them? Why did you mislead the House?
August 24, 2022 - 10:27am
Video - YouTube
Ms FINLAY question to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRIES and WATER, Ms PALMER:
At the first sign of trouble you chose to mislead the Parliament. Knowing how distressed fishers are across Tasmania, can you please announce when you will make a decision on these changes?
Mr FERGUSON - Point of order. The member is not entitled to make that allegation except by a substantive motion. I asked that it be withdrawn?
Ms O'BYRNE - On the point of order, Mr Speaker, that is actually not true. She is not allowed to say the Minister lied without a substantive motion but the Minister admitted in her statement that she had said something that was not true.
Mr SPEAKER - It is not a point of order and it is not an argument point either. In this day and age we should be respectful of each other. I ask the member to withdraw that allegation or personal reflection and continue her question.
Ms FINLAY - I withdraw the comment, Mr Speaker. Minister, at the first time of trouble, your first instinct was to not tell the truth in the Parliament. Knowing how distressed rock lobster fishers are across Tasmania, when will you announce the decision on these rule changes?
August 24, 2022 - 10:49am
Video - YouTube
Mr. Speaker, I move - That the House take note of the following matter: The Tasmanian rock lobster fishery.
I rise on this matter of public importance because there have been exchanges in the House this week and last week around this issue. More importantly, I rise to bring some awareness to this place and share with Tasmanians the importance of this fishery.
This is not only to the people who go out day on day, in horrendous conditions sometimes, often overnight for many nights, away from home, but for the families that support fishers, for their communities and the regional economies of Tasmania, and also for the fish and biomass.
I am not sure that there is a deep and broad understanding in this Chamber of the importance of this fishery, and the impact that the process over recent months has been having on the fishers of Tasmania. There have been some interjections in the questions that have been asked recently about whether this is actually important, so I felt it important to rise today and talk about that.
Earlier this week, the Premier rose and talked about how important regional communities are to the economy of Tasmania, how important local jobs are, and the people in those communities. There are no more deeply invested and passionate members of regional communities in Tasmania that our farmers and fishers. I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet with rock lobster fishers right across Tasmania, from as far north-west as King Island.
I have spoken to fishers in Wynyard, across the North of the state at Bridport, on Flinders Island, in St Helens, down the coast in Triabunna, met with fishers in Lindisfarne, Hobart, and with fishers not in Southport but from Southport. There are very few sectors that have as direct and significant impact in the regional economies right across Tasmania. There is a proposed rule in the rule changes for the rock lobster fishery to expand the 60-pot area.
For those unaware, at the moment, in the wild waters of the West Coast, large boats have capacity to fish with 60 pots and the biomass over there, although questionable in some areas, has the capacity to carry that - the people who fish there and the fisheries. There is a proposal to expand that 60-pot area up over the North-West Coast and North-East of Tasmania. There is deep concern about this proposal. It has caused major distress and is having a monumental impact on the mental health of these fishers and their families. This proposal was brought to the attention of the Minister as early as May. In the Upper House, we raised through the President a question to the Minister and brought to her attention that she must know that there was a problem in the fishery. She needed to get across it quickly.
There was a vulnerable fishery and a disgruntled fleet of fishers. That was reinforced by Mick Tucker, the Mayor of Break O'Day, who formally submitted to the process. He said this review of the rules was of particular interest, that Break O'Day strongly opposed the rule changes, which were reactive and ill-advised. It was going to be detrimental to the viability of small operators, but not just the fishers. It was going to have an impact on local businesses. He understood the impact on slipways, on boilermakers.
I have met with the slipway operator in St Helens and the boat builder in St Helens. I have spoken to local shop operators in those communities. They all understand the impact, not just on the fisher, their families and their communities. For instance, in St Helens and also on King Island, you devastate the fleet in Tasmania that underpins one of the great international brands of Tasmania. We go to all these wharves and see these great cray pots, and we love that and promote it but you devastate this fishery by implementing this rule change, families that have been generational on the East Coast or King Island, as an example. Their partners and wives work in the local medical centre, the school, the IGA, the bakery. They are deeply embedded in their community. If they have to move out of these communities, those communities will be devastated, both socially and economically.
This has been known by the Minister for a long time. There has been a lot of commentary and, as the Minister herself explained this morning, there has been a lot of engagement on this. The fishers, to this point, are still concerned that the real impacts, the devastation, is not just for them. They are concerned for their families, for the generations of their families that have invested in this. They are concerned for their communities and the economies of Tasmania of supporting this expansion to support quota holders and investors.
I have met with the chair of the Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishermen's Association. I have spoken to investors and quota owners. I understand both sides of this complex conversation and I have been upfront with both sides of this conversation. If this rule change is implemented, it will have a massive impact on the economies of Tasmania and the people of Tasmania. The Minister has known this for some time. She has said that she understands the stress, the impact on the mental health of the fishers across Tasmania.
I am receiving correspondence daily from people checking in and asking for us to check in on their mates out on their boats, at night, overnight alone. They are worried about when this decision will be made because they know that it is going to affect masses of investment they have made and support they are making for their families. We called on the minister this morning to ask her directly: when will you make this decision, when will the outcome of these rule changes be made public?
Night on night, day on day, these fishers do not feel they have been heard, do not feel they are being represented by their body, their Minister or their Government in a way that is really understanding the devastating impact this rule change will have on them. They want to know when the decision will be made. When will they be put out of their distress and concern so they can make decisions about the investments they will make when these rule changes come in on 1 November?
August 24, 2022 - 11:29am
Video - YouTube
Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise to stand up for the rock lobster fishers of Tasmania.
Over the past few months I have been supporting their position for clarity from the Government in regards to a large suite of rule changes that are pending for the industry.
I want to explain why it has been important for me to put forward their views in such a strong and persistent way.
It all started earlier this year when I was invited to a meeting by a small number of rock lobster fishers. We met in the Parliament. Before that meeting, I had been on many camping trips where divers had pulled in some beautiful fish for us to enjoy but I did not understand the nature of the industry. They had a list of concerns regarding the proposed rule and policy changes for the rock lobster fishery but the overriding issue was the proposal to expand the 60-pot area from the West Coast to across the North-West and over to the North-East. It would take in King Island and Flinders Island and include a lot of space where our small and medium rock lobster fishers fish. It took a while for me to meet with fishers at their home ports to really understand why they were so concerned about this.
I want to share that this evening, many of the rock lobster fishers of Tasmania own and operate the boats that are at the wharves scattered right around our coastline. They have been fishing for generations. Many of the people I met were taught to fish by their uncles, their fathers, their grandfathers. They now are taking their sons and daughters out with them and hoping to pass on this classic Tasmanian way of life to the next generation.
Many of them are concerned the expansion of the 60-pod area will put pressure on the fishery and pressure on their communities in the way that they fish. The pressure is not just about the individual fisher. It will have an impact on them but it will also have an impact on their families, their communities and the economies of Tasmania where it matters most - in regional Tasmania.
Not only have I met with fishers in these communities but I have also met with the people who rely on them, people who work in the local medical centre, the local school, the local IGA, the bakery. If these fishers are lost from our regional communities, then their partners and their extended families are lost. If they cannot continue to do this job in their local community, a job that might have been doing since they were 12 or 13 and it is all they know, then they need to reskill and look outside their local communities to support their families. We potentially lose the fishers out of these communities.
When I was on the East Coast, I met with someone who has a slipway on the East Coast. Eighty per cent of his business relies on a fleet that comes in and out of the community.
I met with a boat builder: a large portion of his business is designing and creating boats for fisheries across Tasmania. There is a large ongoing ripple effect into communities if this 60-pot expansion is implemented and impacts fishers and the businesses rely on them.
We heard from Mick Tucker, the character from the East Coast, who knows the absolute impact it will have on the economy of the Break O'Day community. We have heard people standing up for and speaking on behalf of these fishers but what we are getting from the Government is a vacuum of response. I do not think it is clear to this Government, and to the Minister at the moment, the impact that not making this decision and not announcing this decision is having on these local fishers. It appears to me that the anxiousness, the worry and their mental health is being disregarded. Yes, it does take time to consult. It takes time to implement good decisions. I completely understand that and the fishers understand that. However, they were expecting a decision in August.
This week I have been silent on the matter to give space to the Minister to announce her intentions. If the minister is not in a position by now, having done all her research and received her recommendations to make an announcement, then the Minister must put the fishers of Tasmania at ease and announce the date that she will make this announcement. We know and the Minister has repeatedly said that these rules have to be implemented by 1 November.
Fishers across Tasmania have to make massive decisions about their future. They have to know how they are going to tool up for these new changes. It is not even known whether people can make the measuring devices that they are going to need to use if the different changes are going to come and change the sizes of the fish in Tasmania. The Minister and Government are not leaving themselves enough time for this to be clearly implemented. They are not relieving the anxieties of the fishers who rely on this decision to make future decisions for themselves and their families and their communities.
This has been very important to me. I have been very proud to be an advocate for the small and medium fishers of Tasmania. I have been proud to stand with them and help give strength to their voice. Right now, we need a Minister who is going to make a decision, be clear about the decision, and do it in a timely way to ensure that the future of a classically Tasmanian industry and tradition can continue in Tasmania, and our small towns and our regional communities can continue to thrive, supported by our small and medium rock lobster fishers.
September 7, 2022 - 7:55pm
Video - YouTube
Ms FINLAY question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF:
The King Island slip is essential infrastructure for the island's fishers. They use it for maintenance, for emergencies and when they have to service their boats to ensure they can keep fishing.
However, despite taking bookings and providing months of assurances, TasPorts has now closed the slip. It has been suggested that fishers can use a slip at Stanley. However, due to the already heavy workload of this slip, boats have had to come to Hobart. There are four King Island boats here today. Others have had to go as far afield as Lakes Entrance and Apollo Bay in Victoria to get work done.
Many of these fishers have had to take time off fishing, which means lost income. It also means this work has been taken out of the King Island community and will impact their local economy. As one fisher said to me, it is like having your car break down in Hobart and having to take it to a mechanic in Sydney.
Why has this slip closed? When will it reopen? Is it true that TasPorts have offered to sell this slip to the fishers for $1?
November 8, 2022 - 10:59am
Video - YouTube