The livelihoods of Western Victoria’s rock lobster fishermen have been put at massive risk by the Gillard Labor Government which has failed to take effective action on the closure of the Chinese export market.
The livelihoods of Western Victoria’s rock lobster fishermen have been put at massive risk by the Gillard Labor Government which has failed to take effective action on the closure of the Chinese export market. On midnight on the 15th of November the Chinese immediately shut down access for Australian rock lobsters into that export market through Hong Kong. Today, the access to China was shut completely. The Australian rock lobster industry is now in a massive state of shock and disbelief. Local Portland fisherman, Mr Brian O’Connor, is now desperately concerned about the future of the industry.
“If this keeps going, it will kill the industry, and we’ll definitely be out of business,” Mr O’Connor said today. “The way prices are going, you won’t even entertain the idea of starting your boat right now – you just wouldn’t cover your losses. “And it’s a double‐edged sword: if we don’t catch our quota, we lose it. If we don’t catch our quota, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) reduce our quota permanently for the future,” Mr O’Connor said. Two weeks have passed since the initial shut‐down and it is still unclear whether the government has stopped buck‐passing enough to do something for the industry, and fishermen like Mr O’Connor, or if anything is even being done at all," Dan Tehan said. “There are millions of lobsters sitting on boats about to come into port or in processing plants with no market. Either the lobsters are left to die or are thrown over the boat if alive. “The Coalition understands a very small amount of exports got into China ‐ under strict and expensive tariff conditions ‐ following November 15th. The very last shipment took sixteen hours to clear customs and had a mortality rate of almost 50 per cent. That was clearly unacceptable and totally unviable for the industry. “I can't express my concern about this matter strongly enough, and the impact this will have on not only local fishermen, but our local economy and the communities surrounding this industry as well. Make no mistake, the livelihoods of local rock lobster fishermen and their communities are at enormous risk.”
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