Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (19:00): (411) My adjournment is to the Minister for Outdoor Recreation, who of course has responsibility for the commercial fishing sector. I probably could have made this to the Minister for Environment, but I will go with outdoor recreation. The action that I am seeking is the minister’s support in relation to the decommissioning of the oil and gas fields in Bass Strait to have those areas returned to the commercial fishing sector.

What has transpired to date is that the multinational companies that are involved have spoken about cutting these platforms and underwater structures off 50 metres below the surface. That of course does not allow for our commercial fishing nets to go into those areas, so it leaves that area unfishable from a commercial perspective. What I am seeking from this government and the Minister for Outdoor Recreation, who as I said, has responsibility for this sector, is for them to work with their federal government counterparts to return this area to a commercial fishing ground as it was before the oil and gas industry commenced in Bass Strait. We need to be able to have grounds returned to this industry, because they are under additional pressures at the current time from potential wind farm development in the Bass Strait – and what transpires there we will find out probably over the next decade. But in relation to this issue, they were fishing grounds before the oil and gas industry went in, and they need to left as fishing grounds when the oil and gas industry departs. I would hope as a Parliament generally – there is more than one minister and shadow minister involved in this – we can work together to get the best possible outcome for those commercial fishers, because it is such an important industry not only for the East Gippsland economy but for the Victorian economy. It has the biggest throughput of seafood of any port in this state, and it is amongst the highest in Australia, so you can imagine the impact that has to our Victorian economy. We need to look after those commercial fishermen. I seek the full Parliament’s support to achieve that, but I direct this adjournment to the Minister for Outdoor Recreation.