THE Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF), representing Australia peak national and key state recreational fishing organisations has called for an immediate independent scientific review of the Marine Park Process.
ARFF Managing Director Allan Hansard said “What was clear from the recent Parliamentary debate on the Marine Parks is that the process is driven more by politics than the essential science required for good public policy to protect our marine environment.
“We have continually asked Minister Burke to answer one simple question. Why is he locking Australia’s recreational fishers out of Marine National Parks yet still letting divers, tourism operators, bulk and cargo carriers and defence activities into these areas?
“The debate earlier this week again provided no answer to this question from the Minister and now even independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor who supported the Government’s Marine Park policy are silent on the question.
“We have heard a lot of political spin but no scientific substance to satisfy us that the decision made to lock recreational fishers out of Marine National Parks is anything but political. In his speech to Parliament on the issue, Minister Burke displayed a pile of ‘scientific reports’ supposedly used in underpinning the Marine Park decisions. However he failed to show us just where in that pile of reports he got the science to lock recreational fishers out of Marine National Parks.
“We are calling the Government and the two Independents to come clean on Marine Park process and tell Australia’s 5 million recreational fishers what impact they do to the marine environment that warrants them being locked out of 1.3 million square kilometres of proposed Marine National Parks, yet it’s fine to have thousands of divers, tourists, hundreds of bulk carriers and even exploding bombs and torpedoes in these areas.
“We want to see the science that has led to the Government and the two Independents to be so comfortable with their decision to lock Aussie anglers out. Surely the two Independents have seen this science for them to support the Government’s Marine Park process. Surely that is part of good public policy decision making.
“We are asking for an immediate independent scientific review of the Marine Park process to examine specifically what underpins the decision to lock recreational fishers out of marine national parks, yet allows arguably more environmentally destructive activities to still occur in these areas.
“If the Minister, his Government and the independents are so confident with the science underpinning their decision then they have nothing to fear from an immediate independent scientific review of the Marine Park process and should support our call – for the sake of our marine environment”.
