Transcript
Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Rockhampton with David Swindells and Rob Pie. They’re both fishermen, they’ve been fishing for many years. And I am absolutely stunned and shocked with the stories I’ve heard in the last hour and a half. So we’re just gonna pick a couple of really startling stories. Can you tell us what’s involved when you catch Black Jewfish?
Well, just for me to go and catch a Black Jewfish, which has a quota on of 20 tonne for the commercial sector.
So that’s for a year, the whole commercial sector gets 20 tonnes of Jewfish. Just 20 tonnes for the whole year. I think this year it took 48 days to catch that quota. After that, we were not allowed to go and catch any more. But, while I could got and catch ’em, just to go and catch this fish, I had to ring up fisheries every morning before I left the boat ramp.
Were they in Brisbane?
Oh, gotta ring up Brisbane, on an automated system, which isn’t real good. Then, once I go out there fishing, or I catch a fish, when I come home I’ve got to ring ’em before I get to the boat ramp, let ’em know how many fish I’ve got. I’ve got to the boat ramp, then I have to take ’em to the wholesaler. And when I go to the wholesaler, all this period of time I cannot let that fish outta my sight.
So you can’t even have a leak?
Oh, I wouldn’t want it to be for too long. But anyway, then I can’t let it outta me sight. Then, once I’ve sold it to the wholesaler, I then have to do what they call a CDR, docket to the wholesaler. Then he can have it. Then I have to ring up Brisbane once again and tell them who I’ve sold it to and the weight and the number of fish. And I thought that would be enough. Then I go home again, I then have to put it into my normal logbooks, to send that to Brisbane again. And I have to send that to Brisbane within seven days of entering it in of catching the fish. Now, these regulations are over the top. Now, the State Government has to come and do something for the fishermen. I’m sick and tired of the fishermen being the lower class. It happens all the time. We are not to be stood on. It’s about time the public and the State Government got up and stood up for us.
Now, fishing is one of the biggest, I think it’s the world’s biggest recreational sport, maybe apart from golf. So, you’re not opposed to recreational fishermen. But, if a recreational fisherman catches a Black Jewfish, does he have to do this?
No, if a recreational fisherman catches a Black Jewfish, all he has to do is bring it in whole. He is not allowed to gut it or anything, same as we’re not allowed to gut ’em.
Doesn’t have to report it?
He doesn’t have to report it.
So, just one thing, before we move off your topic and go onto one of Rob’s. The 48 days of catching Black Jewfish for the whole industry, 20 tonnes, last year it was 48 days. So the rest, the other ten and a half months, there’s no Black Jewfish caught?
There’s no Black Jewfish caught commercially, so the public doesn’t get any fresh fish, once again. Like the net free zones, when they brought them in, they stopped 36% of the wild caught Barramundi being fed to the Queensland consumer. Now, don’t our Queensland consumers have some rights? Or is it only the recreational fishermen that they’re looking after? And as far as I’m concerned, they’re only there to get votes. Votes do not put feeds on the table.
Rob, can you tell us quickly about the costs involved? You’ve got what I would call a dinghy, it’s a big more than that, but it’s a dinghy. We’ll get some photos of it. And it costs a recreational fisherman or anyone who wants to buy that same boat with the outboard motor about $25,000. What do you have to pay for it?
Well, if I was to tear the backside out of it now, and to replace that boat it would cost me upwards of $70,000, without me putting equipment on it to shoot away and retrieve trawl nets, as they class the net with fisheries.
And even though the fish take notice of the moon and the tides and what have you, and the weather and the climate, they don’t pay attention to whether it’s weekend or not as far as I know.
No, no.
But you can’t fish on the weekend, even if the tides are suitable and the moon’s suitable.
I can fish in certain parts of the river, but with the net free zones, when there was nets in the river allowed, that was classed as weekend closure, which allowed the commercial fishermen only to work until 6 p.m. Friday night. It was closed from 6 p.m. Friday night to 6 p.m. Sunday afternoon. And then that was open again on 6 p.m. Sunday night for the commercial to set their nets. So, on the weekend, if you called it weekenders and pros clashing, they saw that weekend clash as a way of softening the blow on it and avoiding the fights or whatever may be. Now the net free zones have been declared, the net free zones still have the trawl areas. The big trawl area here is still closed for weekenders for no apparent reason.
No data, nothing.
No.
A lot of these regulations are not based on data, they go against the data. We haven’t got time now, but you’ve given me phenomenal examples of how this is actually hurting the fish that they’re supposedly trying to protect.
Yes.
It’s making it worse for the Barramundi and other fishes.
Yeah, well not only the Barramundi. Like, the Barramundi, they have problems, they eat their own young. And up to a fair size, actually, I’ve caught fish years ago, like probably a 30 pound Barra, probably had three fish up to 10 inches long in it.
So, you’ve actually noticed
Yes.
That there are fewer fish now with the restrictions that you’ve got on you, with fewer fish now than before when there were no restrictions because what you did was keep the balance.
Yeah, well what we used to do, we’re allowed to keep, until the new logbooks came in, and they threw the logbook from the offshore fishery at us for the trawl fishery and out of about 20 different species that you can catch in the offshore trawl fishery, we only catch about five here. So, it’s a useless piece of gear that we’ve gotta fill in that doesn’t reflect what we can catch. What we can catch is prawns, we catch different varieties of prawns. We catch small mullet, herrings, gar and similar fish. If we catch the prawns, we can keep them. But if we catch herrings or gar or small mullet, we’ve gotta return them to the water.
The people are being heard here. Not only the fishermen, but everyone who eats seafood in Queensland, because we’re bringing in more imported seafood because the locals can’t catch it. And it’s just absolutely insane.
