Original story by Andrew Darby, the National Times – With barely one vote to spare, marine reserve patchwork was saved
The vote was about as close as they get in this Federal Parliament. It was 71 for keeping the system of marine reserves that had taken 20 years’ work to achieve, and 70 against.
Just 5.6 per cent of Australia’s biodiverse continental shelf waters will be protected.
Photo: Richard Herman
Backing Labor were the independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie, plus Craig Thomson and the Greens’ Adam Bandt. Backing the Coalition’s disallowance motion were Bob Katter and Peter Slipper.
This vote, coming as it did a few days before World Oceans Day, gives pause for reflection.
Our oceans are acidifying, depleted of fish, and increasingly polluted. The US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration chose Oceans Day to publish an eye-opening illustration of the time it takes for marine debris to break down.
Happy World Oceans Day in 2413, when a plastic six-pack ring dropped in the sea today finally will have decomposed.
Among such problems, a bright light on the horizon for Australia is our network of marine reserves – 3.1 million kilometres of waters around the country beyond the three nautical mile state waters boundary.
Yet this system is not perfect.
Analysis by the Sydney-based Centre for Conservation Geography shows just 5.6 per cent of Australia’s shallower ocean, its continental shelf waters, will be fully protected. By contrast, 16.1 per cent of our less biodiverse deep-ocean domain is in sanctuaries.
But it’s also the only game in town.
The system was developed from the early 1990s through a process basically unaltered by either Labor or Coalition governments, and has been argued about exhaustively since then.
Which makes all the more curious the Tony Abbott-led opposition’s decision to oppose the system, and spring a disallowance motion at five minutes to midnight before the reserves became law.
Coalition agriculture spokesman John Cobb claimed to be acting on behalf of aggrieved recreational and commercial fishers.
This would seem to be fertile ground for the Coalition. As academic analysis has pointed out, these fishers can often see little point in marine parks.
But when it comes to the Commonwealth reserve system, there is actually no grassroots revolution from fishers.
Instead the “Keep Australia Fishing” group that put its name to a rally before the vote leans heavily on industry figures: fishing gear and outboard motor sellers, according to its website.
Far short of the 1000 predicted, the rally itself in Torquay, Victoria drew a handful to listen to Coalition politicians and fishing stalwart Rex Hunt.
Small beer compared to the popular uprising against the entry of the super trawler Margiris into Australian waters last year.
Environment Minister Tony Burke quickly grasped the antipathy of fishers to that ship, while the Coalition was left to unconvincingly argue the science.
Map of Australia’s network of Commonwealth marine reserves. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
Caught on the wrong side of this debate, the Coalition may have hoped the marine reserves disallowance would win back favour with fishers. Forget that much of the work to get the reserves system was done under the Howard government.
It may also be an indication of a more general approach by a future Abbott government.
With state Liberal leaders opening national parks on land to hunting and grazing, is more fishing to follow?
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.