Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

For those listening, this debate on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2014 highlights Labor's absolute incompetence, hypocrisy and failure to make any decision on anything. It is typical of Labor. The previous speaker said that Mr Burke—on Q&A, mind you; not in the parliament by way of a formal announcement as the then minister—announced that there would be no more supertrawlers in Australia. Senator Bilyk, is that the same Mr Burke who actually encouraged the supertrawler to which you refer to come into Australia a couple years previously? This is what the same Hon. Mr Tony Burke MP, when he was agriculture minister, said in 2009. I quote his words:

There are considerable economies of scale in the fishery and the most efficient way to fish may include large-scale factory-freezer vessels.

There we are, the former agriculture minister, Mr Burke, saying to these large-scale freezer vessels, 'Welcome to Australia.' This is the sort of vessel that Senator Bilyk and, I suggest, Senator Whish-Wilson have been talking about. Then the same Mr Tony Burke, not in any formal sense but on a media show—which, I might say, is watched by very few people—said he was going to actually ban the same vessel that he personally had encouraged into Australia. This debate is all about Labor's incompetence, their inability to make any decision but, when they do make decisions, they are completely contradictory.

Again, I wish to contradict Senator Bilyk and I have personal knowledge of this, because it involved me as former fisheries minister. Back in, I think, 2004—I do not have the details in front of me, but they are all available on the public record—there was a suggestion of the Veronica coming into Tasmania. At the time, we had not done the science.

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

Clearly, whenever the truth comes out and it hurts Senator Bilyk, she will do what she can to drown me out in this debate. But it will not stop the facts, Senator Bilyk. The MV Veronica supertrawler was reportedly coming into Australian waters. Back in those days, we had not done the research, we had not done the science. So I as fisheries minister at the time said—and I might add that this was before the vessel came anywhere near Australia—'We should delay this and get the experts, not Senator Bilyk or Senator Whish-Wilson, but scientists who understand fisheries management, fish stock and how fisheries work. We'll get them to have a look at it to see what should or should not happen.' So, prudently, the government of the day said, 'Hold on a sec—we're not saying no, we're not saying yes—but let's do the science. Let's not rely on the Greens political party and Senator Bilyk, who know nothing about fisheries.' They know a lot about political campaigns, most of them completely dishonest, but they know nothing about the science of fisheries—