Property Rights Australia and Katter's Australian Party have come out swinging in the wake of the federal government's decision, supported by the state government, to ban forms of gillnet fishing in North Queensland.
As well as accusing both governments of dancing to UNESCO's tune when it came to managing the Great Barrier Reef, rather than basing management on evidence-based science, PRA's chairman, Jim Willmott fears ongoing pledges have the potential to cause further harm to producers struggling to make a living.
"Both governments are still pushing water quality targets for sediment, nutrient and pesticides to be achieved by February 2025, while new emerging Reef science shows evident impact is confined to inner shore reefs and not the vast mid and outer reefs," he said. "The five-year review of the Reef Scientific Consensus Statement due in 2022, has been pushed out to June 2025 by both governments."
He said that was to ensure new science wouldn't hamper Reef regulation programs.
Hill MP Shane Knuth said the latest announcement of the formation of the Future Fisheries Taskforce was another slap in the face to Queensland fishermen.
"There is not one single representative from the seafood industry on this taskforce. It is stacked with a former WWF official, Queensland Fisheries, Treasury, DES and departments of the Premier and Cabinet," he said.
"This taskforce is making decisions that affect the long-term future of the fishery industry and people's livelihoods across the state, without any representation from those in the industry.
"How on earth can the seafood industry get a balanced and unbiased plan for the sustainable future of the fishery.
"It's an absolute stitch up."
Attending the seafood rally at Parliament House along with fellow KAP MP's Robbie Katter and Nick Dametto, Mr Knuth agreed the government needed to stand up to international agencies such as UNESCO.
"What's the point in having a minister oversee the fishery portfolio, if they will always meekly surrender to overseas organisations who fly in for a few days and demand the closure of gillnet fishing without understanding or consulting those in the industry," he said.
He added that Queensland already had one of the most tightly regulated fisheries in the world, going through more than 30 years of hard reform to ensure sustainable practices within the industry.
"They have never ever gillnetted the Great Barrier Reef and are not even close to it," he said.
Mr Willmott said that as well as increasing enforcement of Reef compliance programs and requiring more expensive gully repairs, producers should expect dam projects to be cancelled, and further restrictions on land clearing in high value regrowth and remnant vegetation areas to be imposed.
"Endorsing actions that shrink agricultural and fishing industries in the Reef, while giving the green light to establishing industrial scaled renewable energy projects and hydro energy storage dams, regardless of their footprint and environmental impacts," he said.
Similar fears have been voiced by LNP Senators Susan McDonald and Jonno Duniam, who said gillnet fishing was just one of 10 priority recommendations devised by UNESCO and subsequently endorsed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
The agreed recommendations include a 'significant' scaling up of adoption, monitoring and enforcement of various cane and banana farming best practices, land buybacks, grazing land restoration and dam restrictions.
Queensland Country Life has asked federal Environment Minister Tanya Plilbersek to respond to the claims, but on the topic of consultation, which was the responsibility of the state government, has been directed to a Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement, which incorporated the draft revised Great Sandy Marine Park zoning plan, incorporating Bundaberg, Fraser Coast and Sunshine Coast marine environments, released for public consultation in September 2022.
More than 40 stakeholder meetings were held, and 1245 online survey responses and 215 written submissions received.
Two additional written submission 'campaigns' were received, by the Australian Marine Conservation Society (4056 letters) and the Queensland Seafood Industry Association (1066 letters).
One submission was received from the Great Sandy Alliance, which represented the views of 26 organisations primarily from the conservation sector plus a number of tourism businesses.
Regarding fears of stricter vegetation management controls, a spokesperson for Queensland's Department of Resources said the state's "responsible vegetation management laws were amended in 2018 to provide greater protection to our valuable native vegetation".
"At the same time, the laws continue to allow landholders to sustainably manage and grow the farm operations behind our multi-billion-dollar agricultural industry," the spokesperson said. "Additional funding of almost $10 million will be invested over the next four years to support the department to work with landholders to improve education and enhance compliance with the state's vegetation management framework."
Questions about whether the state government would support federal initiatives to restrict land clearing, if they came up, were not answered.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
