Rachel Siewert
Senator for Western Australia
Speech type: MATTER
OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Date: 9 November, 2005
Marine Conservation
(Please note – this document is an edited version of speech notes and may not exactly match the speech as delivered).
Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia) (1.11 pm)—I would like today to raise an
issue that is of deep concern for me and an issue on which I have been working for
many years—that is, marine conservation. I am pleased to be able to say that on this
issue the government is showing some leadership. However, I would like to see
more. The three specific issues to do with marine conservation that I would like to
deal with today are: illegal fishing—in particular, shark fishing—deep sea or high
sea bottom trawling, and whaling.
Every day, certainly in Western Australia, the newspapers are carrying more and
more horror stories about the impact of illegal fishing and shark fishing.
Unfortunately, this is having an impact on Australian shark fishing. I believe
Australian fishers are going to have to modify their practices, at least in the shortterm, until we get a handle on, and are able to manage in a more comprehensive
manner and control, the illegal fishing that is happening in our waters.
Shark numbers have declined in the Indonesian archipelago to the point that it is
virtually impossible to fish there, which is part of the reason why fishers are coming
down to fish illegally in Australian waters. Illegal shark fishing is a major driver of
illegal fishing in Australian waters, and shark numbers are declining in Australia.
Although we do not have a strong handle on the whole of the impact that we are
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having on shark numbers, we do know that the sandbar and dusky sharks, for
example, have declined in numbers to the point that there is strong concern about
Western Australian waters.
Action is being taken. I have already talked in this place before about the need for
a plan to deal with this issue, acknowledging that the federal government is taking
action. But just putting boats in the water is not going to solve this problem. We
need a comprehensive plan—we need to work and cooperate with our northern
neighbours to put in a regional management plan of some sort. However, we cannot
just leave it at that. I believe more action is needed.
The West Australian, a paper that I must admit I am not overly fond of always
quoting—
Senator Ian Macdonald—It is bad practice to do.
Senator SIEWERT—Thank you. On Saturday morning it indicated there is
strong evidence that not only are illegally caught shark fins entering the Western
Australian market, unfortunately there is some evidence that shark fins caught
illegally by Australian fishers are also entering the market. To my mind that means
that we need to take action in some way and investigate the potential of a ban on the
import and export of shark fin products in Australia. This may send a strong message
about how seriously Australia takes these issues. I also believe that we need to look
at the development of an international plan of action for sharks. We also need to look
at what protection we are offering under the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act for sharks. Do we need to list any of our sharks under
CITES, the convention that deals with the international trade in endangered species?
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Do we need to look at closing of some further shark fisheries? I acknowledge that
Western Australia has already closed the shark fishery between Exmouth and
Broome, but I am deeply concerned that this is not enough, that we need to take
stronger action and that that, unfortunately, is going to impact on Australian fisheries
in the short term. However, perhaps this is a measure that we have to take in order to
deal with the longer term issues and to ensure that our shark fisheries are sustainable
into the future, because not only are we having an impact on our shark fisheries,
unfortunately we are also having an impact on marine biodiversity within our
region. There is evidence that a substantial number dolphins, for example, are being
taken as bait. Even if it is only one or two per boat per visit, when you are looking at
the number of illegal fishing boats that we are facing at the moment, that has a
substantial impact on the dolphin population. Also, the fishing practices are having
an as yet unknown toll on our marine biodiversity.
I now move on to another important issue—one that is also very topical. That is
high seas bottom trawling. I again acknowledge that the government is showing
some leadership on this issue, but I strongly feel that we need more, because this
practice is a catastrophic one. It involves the dragging of nets the size of football
fields across delicate sponge and coral ecosystems on the ocean floor. These are
huge nets armed with steel plates and heavy rollers that basically plough up and
pulverise anything in their path. In a matter of weeks, bottom trawling can destroy
what took thousands of years to create. Deep sea structures are not merely damaged,
they are obliterated. It is like clear-felling. After heavy trawling, the surfaces are
basically reduced to sand, bare rock and rubble. Bottom trawling is destroying
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unknown and undiscovered worlds. I am sure many people have seen that disturbing
image of that huge coral that was bigger than a human that was brought up from the
deep sea. It was brought up and then thrown overboard. That basically resulted in
the destruction of that ecosystem.
Recently, UK marine biologist Professor Callum Roberts, who was recently in
Australia at the conference in Geelong, described bottom trawling as being:
... indiscriminate, scooping up unsustainable levels of the targeted fish as well as destroying their habitat
and many other fish and marine life discarded as bycatch. It is devastating the world’s last great frontier
wilderness.
He also said:
Urgent action is needed, as the damage being caused by bottom trawling could be permanent. Even if
banned now the vulnerable ecosystems could take decades or centuries to recover. It is more like strip
mining than harvesting.
We know that the current practice is not sustainable. I have no doubt that with the
global spotlight on this devastating practice, it is only a matter of time before the
practice is clamped down upon as environmentally unsustainable, indefensible and
economically short-sighted. That is why scientists and environmental organisations
are calling for a United Nations global moratorium on high seas bottom trawling
until sustainable management practices are developed and implemented.
The importance of this issue and the need for action is highlighted by the recent
letter signed by 107 participants at the recent International Marine Protected Areas
Congress in Geelong, to which I just referred, to Ministers Campbell, Macdonald
and Downer. The letter urges the Australian government to provide leadership for
global action to end the aggressive and damaging fishing practice of bottom trawling
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on the high seas. Just last month the Senate passed a motion urging strong action on
this issue and support for United Nations General Assembly resolution 59/25, which
urges strong action urgently and the consideration on a case-by-case basis—and
there was other stuff there—to prohibit the destructive fishing practices, including
bottom trawling, that adversely impact on vulnerable marine species. As we speak, I
understand that there are negotiations in the United Nations about what should be
happening on deep sea bottom trawling. I strongly urge the government to heed the
world’s scientists who are now so strongly speaking out about the impact of deep sea
bottom trawling.
Senator Ian Macdonald—How are you going to enforce it, though?
Senator SIEWERT—That is one of the issues that we need to start talking about,
and if we do not talk about it we are never going to get there. However, we certainly
need to start talking about it. We encourage the government to support measures that
can be taken to put in place a global moratorium on bottom trawling and to consider
how it can be enforced and regulated.
I move on to whaling. We heard the grim news yesterday that the Japanese fleet
has left port en route to the Southern Ocean to start the slaughter that the minister so
graphically outlined in the Senate yesterday. This is one of the issues that confronts
the parliament, where we have such solid, multiparty support and widespread
Australian community support to oppose this devastating practice. We believe the
government has an opportunity to take the lead on this issue, with the support of all
parties.
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I must say that it was frustrating in the extreme to hear the minister’s comment on
ABC radio yesterday, when he stated that we are using diplomacy, and we will know
that diplomacy has had an effect if the ships go home empty. It is a tragedy if that is
the only action we are going to take. Perhaps the minister is thinking that the
Japanese whaling fleet will suffer an attack of conscience halfway to Antarctica and
return home empty. Yes, that would be a coup for our diplomacy, but I really do not
think it is going to happen. I think the minister is going to be sadly disappointed and,
if that is the only action that is taken, there are unfortunately going to be a lot of
whales slaughtered while that happens. We do not have the luxury of time. Despite
genuine efforts by the government and the minister, the whaling fleet is en route to
Antarctica, and we need to take a change of tack in our approach.
In answer to a question put to the minister yesterday by Senator Bartlett, the
minister indicated that consecutive governments had evaluated the legal opinions
and options for preventing whaling, using well-established instruments of
international law, such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the
International Whaling Commission. In each case, the government has advised that
these actions are unlikely to succeed. I appreciate that argument, but it misses the
point that there will be a radical scaling up of whaling by the Japanese under JARPA
II. I believe that provides the Australian government with new opportunities to look
at this. We believe that Japan simply cannot maintain the farce that this is scientific.
We believe that gives us legal avenues that we have not had in the past.
At the same time, whale watching and related tourism has skyrocketed over the
last 10 years. It is now attracting 1.6 million tourists a year and was said to be worth
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at least $29 million in direct revenue in 2003—and I am sure it has gone up since
then. We believe this too opens up legal opportunities that have been apparent
before. The damages to Australia’s interests have standing under international law,
and we should press this case.
I urge the government to reconsider the case for legal action and bring to the
minister’s attention a simple mechanism which exists under the International
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which will buy the government some time to
examine these new legal opportunities. Under the International Tribunal for the Law
of the Sea, Australia can apply for provisional measures to be granted which would
immediately halt the Japanese whaling program in Antarctica for a period of 14
days, in advance of a full dispute being heard. This is a way for the government to
make good the promise it has been making that it is genuinely trying to halt and
committed in its approach to halting this appalling hunt. The minister can act
immediately to stop the whaling fleet in its tracks. I cannot think of too many times
when the government can claim that is has support from all sides of politics and the
Australian community to take action.
While the government reconsiders its position regarding legal action, I remind the
government that there are other recommendations that have been presented to it by
the International Fund for Animal Welfare. They go through a number of actions the
government could take. For example, we could trail these ships and document and
broadcast their every move. We could refuse access by support vessels to Australian
ports. We could submit the Japanese government to an environmental impact
assessment. We could move forward with like-minded nations to investigate the
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many legal and diplomatic options open to us. In the longer term, we could ask that
a diplomatic conference be convened to amend article 8 of the International
Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, to close the loophole which the Japanese
whaling industry continues to abuse.
We do not believe it is not good enough for the government to wait for New
Zealand, France or the US to make the first move. Under consecutive governments
over a period of decades, Australia has led on this issue, and it is time for us to lead
again. In my book—and, I believe, that of most, if not all, Australians—it is not
good enough to see if the fleet comes home empty. It is time that we took action
now.
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