MEDIA RELEASE: FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT LABOR’S MARINE PARK CONSULTATION FROM A DESPERATE MINISTER

FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT LABOR’S MARINE PARK CONSULTATION FROM A DESPERATE MINISTER

 THURSDAY, 22 MARCH 2018

This morning on ABC Radio National commercial fisher Bruce Davey claimed there had been no consultation with the fishing industry when Labor established Australia’s marine parks. He went on to say “just lock away vast areas of the ocean without even consulting with fishermen was just plain wrong.”

Minister Frydenberg made similar claims in an article in today’s Courier Mail boasting he had received 130,000 submissions in his consultation process.

Any claim that Labor did not adequately consult on marine parks is false.

Labor undertook six rounds of consultation on marine parks, in consulting Labor:

•        Received almost three-quarters of a million submissions

•        Held almost 250 stakeholder meetings which were attended by over 2000 people.

This is almost six times more submissions than the Turnbull government received on their proposals.

Even the government’s own hand-picked review panel found Labor’s consultation had resulted in consultation fatigue. Their report stated:

There was a considerable amount of ‘consultation fatigue’ expressed by many stakeholders in the face-to-face meetings. A common initial comment was ‘We’ve already been through this; can’t we just get on with it?’

To claim Labor didn’t consult is as odd as Josh Frydenberg’s claims that his proposal to strip protection in our oceans is good for the environment. His proposed network is good for the ocean environment if you’re not a fish and is like removing half of the national parks on land.

Mr Davey’s claim is more than questionable – Labor’s stakeholder meetings even included Mr Bruce Davey, who attended a meeting hosted by me, as Environment Minister, in Cairns on Sunday 6 May, 2012. The meeting included a range of fisheries stakeholders and several department officials.

Josh Frydenberg is desperate to cover up the biggest step backwards in conservation history. He is so desperate he is making things up as he goes along, the people of Australia deserve better.