Premier Jeremy Rockliff failed to act on scientific advice and as a result a Tasmanian way of life has been put at risk.
As the Primary Industries and Water Minister in 2015, Premier Rockliff was made aware of the critically depleting sand flathead stocks based on the science presented to him by the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).
Instead of following IMAS advice – and information provided to him by the government’s own recreational and scalefish advisory committees – Premier Rockliff ignored the recommendations to put more stringent measures in place to preserve the stocks.
Rather than reduce the sand flathead bag limit to 15 fish per person, he set the limit at 20, and has done next to nothing since.
Ten years of inaction by the Liberal Government has divided the community and heightened public tension between recreational and commercial fishers, which is no doubt a tactic used by the government to distract from their own failures.
Commercial fishers were also taken completely by surprise about the announcement on the weekend. The government has admitted their decision is an attempt to save face rather than stand up to the scrutiny and use science and data to make the hard decisions.
The fact is, Premier Rockliff knew stocks were depleting and kicked the can down the road just to protect their Liberal Party’s public image rather than protect the fishery.
As a consequence, the fishery is now on the brink of collapse, commercial fishers have had their businesses shut down overnight, and many recreational fishers are facing bag limits of just two fish for the foreseeable future.
The collapse of flathead stocks is yet another massive failure from the Liberal government – and once again, it appears the fish started rotting from the head.
Janie Finlay MP
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Water
