Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (10:41): I rise to speak on the report on the 2023–24 budget estimates. On page 246 I note that:

The Sustainably Managed Fish and Boating Resources output has been moved out of the former Department of Transport to DJSIR and has been renamed Fishing, Boating and Game Management.

I wonder if this was a way of trying to hide some of the changes that were about to be announced. We heard earlier this year that the Allan Labor government were going to sneakily attempt to cut the Victorian Fisheries Authority. At that time it was revealed that 33 frontline fisheries officers would be cut and five enforcement stations would close. This move horrified Victorians – people who fish, people who run fishing operations and seafood operations and people who care about the environment right across Victoria. Consequently a petition was raised by my colleagues in the Liberal–Nationals, a petition of 21,000 signatures demanding that the government scrap its plan, and a protest occurred on the steps of Parliament. When communities speak up, it is always good to see that we get a result. We did see the government back down somewhat – not completely – and now, instead of the cutting of 33 frontline fisheries officers, we will see 35 Victorians working at the authority lose their jobs, including 15 fisheries officers, and two enforcement stations will be closed.

We also see, we are led to believe, that this role will now have a focus on education, not enforcement. In the 1990s my dad was a magistrate in the Portland and Warrnambool magistrates courts, and often in the paper there were stories about poachers. We have since seen a lot less of that, and the reason for that, I was reminded at the protest, was we introduced legislation that made poaching an indictable offence. Consequently, because there was a consequence to the poaching, there was a lot less of it going on. With this reduction in fisheries officers and a focus on education, not enforcement, what will we see? We will more than likely see poaching explode again, and the environment, the very delicate marine ecology, will be at risk.

The government say the reason for this is they are now operating in a different budgetary and strategic environment. You know what? I reckon that is code for ‘broke’. They are just trying to find ways to cut costs, and the loss of frontline jobs will mean fewer inspections, less oversight, more illegal fishing and more environmental damage. Without enough fisheries officers, illegal fishing operations will be able to undercut and legitimate operators will be put at risk, endangering more jobs and businesses but also, and most importantly, endangering the environment that Victorians very much care about.

This leaves just 54 fisheries officers to patrol Victoria’s 2500 kilometres of coastline and 250,000 kilometres of inland water frontage, rivers and creeks. It really is a slap in the face to responsible fishers, who do the right thing and expect rules to be enforced fairly. Poachers once again will be rampant and be able to deplete fish stocks, which ruins the ability of Victorians to enjoy recreational fishing. The poachers will quickly get the message that there are not enough fishing officers and so the risk is worth the reward. We will see once again, like we used to see in the 1990s, poachers getting away with unchecked and unrealised wealth from the oceans, which will deplete the environment. This unchecked overfishing and habitat destruction can cause irreversible damage to our marine ecosystems. Without enough fisheries officers, reckless boating activity, speeding and noncompliance with safety rules will increase, endangering lives.

I have had so many people ringing me in my office. I have had the CEO of the Western Abalone Divers Association. We have had seafood companies that employ an enormous amount of people in my part of the world who will be affected by this, and they make the point: they pay the government fees, and they expect to get the environment cared for and fisheries management happening. There are many people from the fishing clubs at Portland, Port Fairy, Warrnambool and right across Victoria concerned about this. This is a government who are shameful in their cuts and destroying of the environment.