The last couple weeks have been hectic in Parliament and both Robert and Mark have continued as they left off in Supplementary Budget Estimates the week before.
Robert
Robert began the week with a Notice Of Motion on Tuesday 12th March acknowledging famed Australian, hunting writer, firearms and reloading expert, Nick Harvey, who passed away in February. Nick’s contribution to hunting, firearms and reloading over the past 70 years cannot be overestimated.
Notice Of Motion – Robert Borsak MLC recognises the life of Nick Harvey (youtube.com)
Robert was excited to announce the outstanding outcome of his advocacy to the NSW Treasurer last year, resulting in combined grants of $787,829 to 24 clubs as part of the MACOSC Safe Shooting Grants. This program was introduced by John Tingle in his time and renewed by the new Labor Government after the Liberal Government cancelled it for 3 years.
https://youtu.be/4uhSqn0paFA?si=MjV_PqDc8kx5IbNI
On Thursday 14 March, 2024, Robert Borsak MLC gave a notice of motion citing the significant inequality facing men and boys, like higher incarceration, lower educational results, victims of violence and rates of suicide. He called on the government to close the gap and create a Minister for Men & Boys and other measures to address these issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUKstyYkGpM
Robert closed the week with another Notice of Motion speaking about the 28th All-Australian Karate Championships and the decades of contribution by Peter Mylonas.
The most significant action of the week, however, was when both Robert and Mark shot down the deep hypocrisy of the Animal Justice Party with both barrels. Emma Hurst MLC moved a motion against Animal Sexual Abuse, alleging it is rife in the agricultural industry, but when Robert and Mark pointed out that Professor Peter Singer, the mentor of the AJP, openly advocates bestiality Ms Hurst refused to condemn Singer.
https://youtu.be/6mMbc4EinEk?si=jCtoEUXxssML2aoE
In the community, On Friday 15th March Robert attended the Sportman’s Long Lunch at Camden Civic Centre, raising funds for the Picton Magpies Rugby League Club, and on Sunday 17th March, he attended and provided a welcome speech at the 28th All Australian Karate Championships at the Rocks in Sydney. He presented Kancho Peter Mylonas with a copy of that Motion he had presented in Parliament the previous Thursday.
Mark
In Parliament, Mark continued to pressure the minister for agriculture and the government over their sudden decision to ban line fishing for Eastern Blue Groper, delivering 3 motions on the floor of parliament. Firstly, outlining the minister’s inability to identify the photo of a female blue groper during Budget Estimates, merely hours after announcing the ban, then a second motion, calling out the government for implementing the ban with no baseline data or stock assessment. Mark holds concerns that without baseline data from a stock assessment, the government and the department have no credible way of measuring the effectiveness of a ban in 12 months, after the trial period.
Finally, the 3rd motion was pointed at the Minister, for potentially misleading the house during questioning at Budget Estimates. The Minister stated concerning the consultation with fishing advisory councils “In relation to the second part of your question, about notifying my advisory councils, I did in fact notify my advisory councils. I wrote to them yesterday and made phone contact.” Since the budget estimates hearing, the office of Mark Banasiak has been contacted by several advisory council members, indicating that they were not contacted by the Minister by email or phone.
The motions can be seen here:
On Tuesday 12th March, Mark posed a question to the Minister, asking if the government had considered the sudden decision to ban taking of the groper without proper consultation or stock assessment, could be subject to Ultra Vires (meaning outside one’s legal power or authority). The minister was unable to provide a clear answer that satisfied Mark, so this will be continued.
Later that evening after the day’s sitting, saw Mark deliver a speech calling out the minister for her seemingly ill-informed ban decision. The Budget Estimates transcript revealed the minister spoke of “engaging” a total of 97 times throughout the morning session, yet our research shows that very little, if any, engagement took place with the industry before the ban.
Here is the video:
Wednesday provided another opportunity in the form of a private members statement, where Mark doubled down on the previous question regarding ultra vires. Mark reaffirmed that the government by admission, implemented the line fishing of blue groper based purely on ‘community sentiment” with no emphatical evidence to demonstrate the ban is justified and could be outside the government’s regulatory mandate, potentially leaving the government open to legal challenges.
You can watch the whole speech here:
In the community, Mark travelled to Dubbo and Wagga as part of the Select Committee on Protecting Local Water Utilities from Privatisation.
Thank you for your continued support,
Team SFF NSW
