The Fyles Labor government are ignoring serious concerns from key stakeholders in the fishing industry before ramming changes to the Fishing Act through the Parliament.
Shadow Minister for Parks and Rangers Bill Yan said the Seafood Council, Amateur Fisherman’s Association of the Northern Territory and other key stakeholders had raised serious and real concerns in the media which had been dismissed by the Fyles Labor government.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty sitting around this whole Fisheries Act change and the government needs to be much more open and transparent about what they’re actually up to because that hasn’t been clear in the last week or so,” he said.
“But what’s concerning fishing industry owners and tour operators is that there is a bigger picture which hasn’t been looked at.
“It’s not just those fishing charter operators we’re talking about – there’s lots of people like the jumping croc crews on the Adelaide River, and the Yellow Water cruises that are being run who are going to be affected.
“Government need to be in there fighting for those business owners and those operators to make sure they’re going to have a livelihood come January next year.”
Mr Yan said there was also major concerns about access to Shady Camp and King Ash Bay.
“The fact that they say that use of Shady Camp is sporadic is madness and untrue – it’s one of the biggest ramps outside of Darwin and for government to not call out the Lands Commissioner on that comment is extremely concerning and shows how out of touch this government is.
“Considering the Territory Government’s invested millions of dollars into Shady Camp’s ramp and car park for access for recreational fishers, to then put up with what the Land Commission is saying is only sporadic use, it just it doesn’t make any sense.”
Mr Yan called on the Fyles Labor government to make the $200,000 report into the fishing industry in the Northern Territory accessible to the public.
“That report has been given to the Northern Land Council and included as part of their overall report and I am sure Territorians would like to probably see that report and actually see what it says,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure fisheries are involved in these changes because they’re the experts, they actually know what’s going on and we need to make sure there’s very, very open discussions and of course clear and wide consultation with all sectors of the commercial fishing industry going into the future.”
ENDS