Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett discusses the impact of the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed fisheries management plans with local professional fishing industry’s Graham and Margaret Stevenson.
‘No farmers, no food’. That’s the message local primary producers want the community to understand when they pound the pavement on Wednesday in protest against the Palaszczuk Government’s attack on farming families.
Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett said the rally had now become more than a protest against Labor’s vegetation management laws, with local fishing families now planning to join farmers in their fight against the Palaszczuk Government’s controversial fisheries management plans.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government is punishing our hardworking food producers including farmers and fishing families, whether they be fruit and vegetable growers, graziers, or commercial fishers, who provide fresh produce for us put on our tables,” Mr Bennett said.
“The end result will cost consumers – where will you buy your fresh fruit and vegetables or seafood? Consumers will struggle to find fresh local produce and be forced to buy inferior, imported produce.”
Mr Bennett said Labor’s ‘Green Paper’ was a recipe for disaster for the region’s commercial fishing sector and would lead to serious job losses and small business closures.
“Catch targets contained in the ‘Green Paper’ means cuts of between 40 and 50 per cent in commercial harvests,” he said.
“It will result in the loss of hundreds of local jobs along Queensland’s coasts, with Bundaberg set to feel its full impact.
“Queensland is recognised as having some of the best, sustainably-managed fisheries in the world, yet this government is determined to push through these extreme changes.”
Local professional fishing spokesperson Margaret Stevenson, who will join the protest rally on Wednesday, said the Palaszczuk Government’s plans to further lock up fisheries would have a devastating impact for the fishing industry and consumers alike.
“The real losers will be the public… that’s where their fresh, wholesome food comes from. We catch it for the public. It’s their supply that is being reduced,” Mrs Stevenson said.
“The public has already lost so much seafood that we are now importing over 70 per cent of our seafood needs… It didn’t get that way without all this intervention. Any further restrictions is taking more seafood off the public.”
Mrs Stevenson is calling on fishing families to join her and other primary producers at the rally on Wednesday.
Mr Bennett urged locals to have their say on the Green Paper by completing a feedback survey at www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au or via email to [email protected].
The Green Paper is available for public comment until September 30.
[ENDS] 08 August 2016
Protest March: When: Wednesday, August 10, 1:30pm for a 2pm start
Where: Buss Park, ending in Anzac Park, Quay Street.