Moreton Bay Marine Park - Access Update

[Grant_Bennett]

The Moreton Bay Access Alliance – Update on Review of Moreton Bay Marine Park Zoning Arrangements.

We are pleased to advise recreational fishers of the formation of an alliance of the major stakeholders in Moreton Bay which has one aim: maintaining future fishing and boating access to the Moreton Bay Marine Park.

The MBAA is not aligned to or a part of any political party – it is a body that represents all sectors of the community and industry that have an interest in the sustainability of the Bay for current and future generations. For the first time, recreational anglers and commercial anglers are working together with the boating and tackle industries, charter operators, seafood consumers, wholesalers, retailers and traditional owners - this is our group and we are known as the Moreton Bay Access Alliance (MBAA).

MBAA had its genesis in a mass meeting at Cleveland in August 2006 that demonstrated the extent of community concern at proposals being advocated by the Australian Marine Conservation Society to lock 30 - 50% of the Bay away as “no-take” or “green” zones – a proposal that would be disastrous for the boating and fishing community and would have huge negative impacts on many people, businesses and millions of seafood lovers.

Andrew Laming, Federal MP for Bowman, must be thanked for his role in organising the Cleveland meeting. Following that meeting, the key MBAA members subsequently got together to form our non-politically aligned, completely independent, community and industry based alliance.

A snap shot of our activities
• On September 2, more than 300 boats and trailers, along with recreational and commercial anglers, formed a rally from their starting points at Redcliffe and Cleveland and paraded past Parliament House in Alice Street, Brisbane to show concern for Moreton Bay access and possible closures.
• More than 30,000 postcards, asking the Premier to keep Moreton Bay open, were delivered in crab pots to the Queensland Premier three days before the election. This was an opportunity for the wider community, not just anglers and boaties, to show concern.

Positive Response from the Queensland Government
MBAA representatives met with Qld Deputy Premier Anna Bligh just prior to the recent election to air our concerns.
The Deputy Premier gave MBAA undertakings that represent a positive start to the process. The commitments we received include:
• that a single steering group will be formed to engage with government agencies and other stakeholders in the formation of a draft zoning plan for public consultation, and that MBAA representatives will be included in this steering group.
• That the submission to Cabinet at the end of the process will be a joint submission from the EPA, DPI Fisheries and the State Development Department, in recognition of the broad potential impacts on the fishing industry, recreational fishing and boating, and on the boat manufacturing and retailing, chandlery, bait and tackle, seafood retailing and traditional owners.
• That MBAA would have ready access to all information being considered during the review process and that no actions would be taken prior to the review to pre-empt its outcome.

Environment & Fishing Can Work Together
The MBAA believes that this review of the Bay’s Marine Park zones can achieve appropriate environmental objectives and, at the same time, have minimal impact on the community’s access for recreational and commercial fishing and boating. We are advocating that the Queensland Government adopt the principle that the zoning arrangements should have minimal impact on recreational and commercial fishing and boating activities.

We applaud the Queensland Government’s approach to stakeholder involvement in the drafting and review of Moreton Bay Marine Park. Also, we are please to have received solid support and encouragement for our goals from local Bayside Queensland MLA’s including Phil Weightman (Cleveland), John English (Redlands), Michael Choi (Capalaba) and Lillian Van Litsenburg (Redcliffe).

Currently, we are gathering information and resources so we are ready when the steering committee commences its task early in 2007 and, on the community’s behalf, we intend to keep pursuing a result for access to Moreton Bay Marine Park.

The decision-making involved with access to the Moreton Bay Marine Park will affect the Park and how it will be used and, importantly, will affect the social and economic needs of the people of South East Queensland. Changes made to ‘The Park’, without scientific, social and economic research and community involvement will have a devastating effect on the communities which love and use the Bay and on the business community which supports the South East Queensland economy.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Bruce Alvey (07) 3271 2844
Grant Bennett 0409 476 173 or
Michael Hinde (BIAQ) (07) 3899 3333.

[Derek_Bullock]

Congratulations on your achievements.

It was a dream of mine a long time ago for such an organisation to look after the Moreton Bay issues.

Keep up the good work.


Derek

[Jeremy]

congratualtion to the MBAA for the work you are doing on behalf of everyone who uses Moreton Bay.

HOWEVER....do not forget or overlook the contribution of The Fishing Party to the process. The Fishing Party has been working hard on these and other issues for around three years now, much longer than the 5 months that the MBAA has been around.

TFP (and ausfish) should be given alot of the credit for the publicity about the car/boat rally to Parliament house. It is only the work of TFP over the last three years in raising the profile of fishing as an election issue, that has made the politicians take any notice of fishing and take the time to engage with MBAA.

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

no comments after 4 weeks
Seems the MBAA is 'fooked'

Jeremy Ha Ha Ha

[ondajob]

Good work jeremy, I like the last coment, thats a cracker!!!!!!!!!

[seatime]

Hi Grant Bennett

Any further updates from the MBAA on the issues confronting Moreton Bay and it's users?

Is it possible for you to post on Ausfish the MBAA's agenda for 2007?

How does the MBAA plan to approach the 2007 review of the Moreton Bay Marine Park, without giving too much away of course?

thanks in advance

[Grant_Bennett]

Hi all

It's good to see that so many people have read our recent upodate and thanks to all who have responded. As some pointed out, many groups including TFPQ have been hard at work on this issue for a long time, and it will be the collective effort that will no doubt make the difference in the end.

MBAA has a number of actions underway, and we will post monthly updates on this site or as developments occur. I expect that the next update will be posted in late January.

Early in the new year we anticipate that we will meet with the EPA Minister and senior staff involved in the review to start the ball rolling on the review and to get the Steering Committee up and running. Our main objective is to reinforce with the Minister the principles and issues we see as important if the review is to produce an outcome that will be acceptable. As most of you probably know, State Government tends to effectively close down over the Christmas break so things have been pretty quiet for the last 3 weeks, and we will be getting in touch with them shortly to push ahead.

Once that first meeting has happened, we will let you know how things went and give you an update on our plans for 2007.

Regards

Grant

[Derek_Bullock]

Below is an extract from Federal Parliament Hansard on 19 October 2006.
Very interesting.


Derek

Moreton Bay Access Alliance

Mr LAMING (Bowman) (4.43 pm)—There have
been many tall tales told in fishing but rarely have
there been stories of such serious undertones and repercussions
as the threat to fishing in Moreton Bay and
the upcoming advisory committee and review process
of the marine park. We know very well just how
stressed the ecology of south-east Queensland is with
one in seven Australians living in that location, hundreds
of families moving there every week and up to
500,000 people enjoying the opportunity for recreation
on Moreton Bay. Of course, striking a balance between
commerce, industry and recreation with a very delicate
bayside and island environment is a challenge. But the
point I make today is that that is no zero-sum game of
trench warfare where there has to be constant embattlement
between environmental views and the views of
those in recreation and commercial activities—far from
it.
We had a state government that lignified and ossified
in their position and just stopped listening to ordinary
people. Today I want to acknowledge those who
stood together—those with an interest in angling, both
commercial and recreational; those with an interest in
the seafood industry; those who care about tourism;
and those who care about the future use of the bay for
all people. They stood together and formed an alliance,
the Moreton Bay Access Alliance, on 1 September this
year. They took it to a state election and gained really
important concessions from the Deputy Premier—not
easily or quickly; not after cancelled meetings, attempts
at coercion and perhaps even threats of removal
of state funding in an effort to erode their commitment.
They brooked all of that. They met with the Deputy
Premier and extracted, two days before the state election,
important concessions.
Why did they have to fight for such simple concessions
as a seat on the review process for the Moreton
Bay Marine Park, a chance to have both the office of
state development and fisheries and primary industries
involved in any cabinet submission that went to the
Premier and an agreement to share information? Those
were basic concessions that should never have taken
the battle that we saw in September. What we had was
the signing of a petition, with thousands of people at
the boat show putting their names to it. That will be
lodged by me in the next sitting week. We saw a postcard
campaign. There was also a convoy of boats and
trailers to Parliament House just the week before the
state election.
These marine protected areas are a challenge for all
of Australia, not just south-east Queensland, but I give
my commitment today to people like Tony Webb and
the other commercial fishers, to the half a million recreational
fishers and to those who are involved in boat
clubs right up and down south-east Queensland that we
will work to find a solution that enables, as I have said,
the delicate ecology to be protected for future generations
but allows basic activities like fishing to also occur.
One thing I know about fishermen through my
experience over the last few years as a federal member
is that they are prepared to adhere to laws—they will
see what is going to be good for their area and their
ecology, for fish stocks and for biomass and stick by
those laws in the main.
The traditional elders are strongly supportive. There
is Vince Martin from the Nunukul Ngugi, a traditional
pioneer in sea cucumber processing, who has Regional
Partnerships money. The work of John Conley, from
Redlands Tourism, is legion in my area. Kelly Williams,
young and dynamic, agreed to head up the industry
association together with John Page, a committed
third-generation fisherman from Moreton Bay. He
made the very good point that fish swim into Moreton
Bay and back out the other side again—we are catching
biomass that moves through it. If they did not move
through we would have long ago fished it out and
turned every rock a generation ago. There are ways of
fishing sustainably in Moreton Bay.
Donna Browne became the heroine of the campaign
and Bruce Alvey, the industry’s national treasure of all
things fishing, was also heading up that campaign. To
Keith Hall, Trevor Higgins, Frank Lee, Jeff Sorrell,
Shane Boese and Rick Huckstep, the results are obvious.
We have extracted the commitment that we all
wanted. But the next step is turning it into reality and
fighting to make sure that there is mutual agreement
between the environmental argument and those who
want to continue using the bay so that it can be preserved
for future generations.
We have, of course, that precautionary principle that
we should make a decision about whether threats are
serious and irreversible enough to put regulation in
before we do the science. The commitment from this
group is to find the science, take it to the Queensland
government and ensure that we have a solution for all
of those who use Moreton Bay on a daily and weekly
basis.

[Jeremy]

Our main objective is to reinforce with the Minister the principles and issues we see as important if the review is to produce an outcome that will be acceptable.

Just what are these principles and issues? Good to see that you have some good people on the MBAA going in to bat for the rec fishoes.

Jeremy

[Grant_Bennett]

Hi all

The MBAA believes that the 2007 review of Moreton Bay Marine Park zones can achieve appropriate environmental objectives and, at the same time, have minimal impact on the community’s access for recreational and commercial fishing and boating. MBAA believes there are seven key principles that should be adopted:

• Any zoning arrangements to have minimal impact on recreational and commercial fishing and boating activities;
• Any restrictions to commercial and recreational fishing & boating considered in MPA’s are to be carefully targeted to only address clearly defined environmental objectives, and that they will only be decided following a proper risk analysis and assessment conducted in consultation with relevant stakeholders who have practical, "on the water" experience;
• There must be complete consultation with and involvement of resource users in the whole review process;
• A comprehensive economic and community impact assessment must be undertaken of any changes;
• There must be public accountability of the rezoning authority
• There needs to be suitable resource allocation; and
• When zoning arrangements are implemented, appropriate and sensible penalties should apply for failure to comply.

There are the major principles MBAA believes should be incorporated into the review process and we will be advocating their adoption by the Government and striving to ensure they are properly applied during the review.

Grant.

[Derek_Bullock]

I see from all of the information above that the MBAA will have representation on the Moreton Bay Marine Park review steering committee.

Can anyone tell me if TFPQ will have representation on the committee as well or is TFPQ part of MBAA. It's not clear.

Thanks


Derek

[gif]

Derek

As you probably guessed they probably think it not appropriate for a political party to have a seat on such a panel.

Gary

[Jeremy]

Hi all

The MBAA believes that the 2007 review of Moreton Bay Marine Park zones can achieve appropriate environmental objectives and, at the same time, have minimal impact on the community’s access for recreational and commercial fishing and boating. MBAA believes there are seven key principles that should be adopted:

• Any zoning arrangements to have minimal impact on recreational and commercial fishing and boating activities;
• Any restrictions to commercial and recreational fishing & boating considered in MPA’s are to be carefully targeted to only address clearly defined environmental objectives, and that they will only be decided following a proper risk analysis and assessment conducted in consultation with relevant stakeholders who have practical, "on the water" experience;
• There must be complete consultation with and involvement of resource users in the whole review process;
• A comprehensive economic and community impact assessment must be undertaken of any changes;
• There must be public accountability of the rezoning authority
• There needs to be suitable resource allocation; and
• When zoning arrangements are implemented, appropriate and sensible penalties should apply for failure to comply.

There are the major principles MBAA believes should be incorporated into the review process and we will be advocating their adoption by the Government and striving to ensure they are properly applied during the review.

Grant.

Grant,

thankyou for taking the time to respond again. Those principles look sound to me. It would be great if the MB Marine park review does follow those guidelines. Good luck with the process.

Jeremy

[seatime]

Ditto to Jeremy's post,

thanks for the update Grant, and others.

looking forward to hopefully, a positive result for MB users.

regards