Australian Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig received confidential advice that banning the controversial super-trawler Abel Tasman would be a “significant risk” for the federal government.
ABC TV’s Four Corners has revealed that Senator Ludwig was briefed by officials who warned against trying to stop the ship fishing in Australian waters.
“In our view none of the arrangements available to you or AFMA (the Australian Fisheries Management Authority) provide the capacity to prevent the (formerly named) FV Margiris from fishing,” a briefing note concluded.
“Any attempt to prevent the FV Margiris from operating would result in significant risk to the commonwealth, to Australia’s fisheries management credibility and to the proper operation of commercial fishing businesses.”
Advertisement
Environment Minister Tony Burke and Senator Ludwig last month announced legislation to increase Mr Burke’s powers, and effectively ban the 142-metre factory ship.
It allows Mr Burke to stop the renamed Abel Tasman fishing in Australian waters for two years while more scientific work is completed.
The vessel has been left languishing at Port Lincoln after a massive campaign from environmentalists and recreational fishers, most strongly in Tasmania, caused the government to act.
A final declaration on the two-year ban is due from Mr Burke next month and the operator, Seafish Tasmania, has indicated it will sue the government if the ban goes ahead.
Damages could reportedly be as high as $10 million.
Four Corners reveals that Mr Burke asked his department to “secretly” begin working on legislation even as he was publicly saying he had “signed off” on the vessel.
Mr Burke made that announcement on the ABC’s Q&A program early last month, saying he had imposed whatever restrictions were in his power at the time.
“I felt when I made that announcement on Q&A that my hands had been tied in a way that I wasn’t happy with,” he told Four Corners.
“I didn’t know whether cabinet and the caucus would end up supporting me in a legislative pathway, so I wasn’t able to announce it at that point.
“But I had the department working on it straight away.”
The initial announcement had been met with relief by Seafish director Gerry Geen, whose company and its partners had spent seven years and millions of dollars negotiating the journey of the ship from Europe.
But Mr Burke announced that new legislation would be introduced a week later.
Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who campaigned against the trawler, says the stability of the federal government in the hung parliament came into play in the decision to ban it.
“At some point in there the Labor Party leadership would have understood people are going to start crossing the floor on this,” Mr Wilkie has told the program.
“It was an absolutely toxic issue and particularly in Tasmania with Tasmanian Labor members.”
2012 AAP