THERE are reports about that Tony Abbott has plans to try and enlist the Independents’ support to take away the Environment Minister’s power to restrict fishing in marine parks. Nationals Senator Ron Boswell has been running a campaign against the proposed national marine parks system for some time now.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act gives the Environment Minister (currently Tony Burke) sole authority to make a marine reserve declaration. As Labor loves to point out, this Act was introduced by the Howard Liberal/National government, as was the Commonwealth marine planning process. For Mr Abbott to try to now chop it back or restrict its powers does look that bit cynical and appears to be a good example of the much-maligned “retail politics”.
The Environment Minister’s powers over aspects of fish species management link back largely to then Liberal Senator and Environment Minister Robert Hill, who created a requirement for all commercial fisheries seeking to export catch to be covered by sector-specific fisheries management strategies and environmental impact statements (EISs). Each State and Territory had to engage with commercial fishers and produce plans which defined what fish could be targeted by what methods, and what should happen if stocks were demonstrably decreasing.
What’s particularly interesting about this is that it took an environment minister, and his bureaucrats, to come up with a methodology aimed at protecting fish stocks and ensuring survival. It wasn’t the fisheries minister or his people. As we’ve often speculated, the principal roles of federal fisheries ministers and their advisers seem traditionally to have been to keep commercial fisheries alive, often in contradiction of scientific advice or in the absence of any detailed information on stock sustainability. Just look at the recent kerfuffle over marlin and tuna quotas.
So shifting accountability for marine protected areas from environment agencies to fisheries management departments (as proposed by the NSW Coalition) might look initially attractive but there could be a sting in the tail. Decisions about marine park zoning might be more favourable to rec fishers, but also a lot more favourable to commercials. And the negatives may well outweigh the positives.
Giving the Parliament a vote on each proposed marine protected area, as Mr Abbott proposes, would be the worst possible outcome. Imagine the politicking and horse trading between vested interest groups, big party politicians and independent members. The marine park network would end up looking like a patchwork quilt.
Might all be academic anyhow. Dr Ben Diggles reports Australia has already hit its 10 per cent marine protected area target, as defined by international treaty obligations. Given the polarising effect of new declarations on the electorate, there might be lots of “consultation” and “assessment”, and not a lot of “action”, on new areas from now to 2020.
John Newbery is Environment Editor for Fishing World.
