The Palaszczuk Labor Government is ignoring warnings that its botched rollout of the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) is harming Queensland’s commercial fishers.
The LNP has been overwhelmed with cases and complaints of faulty responders, allegations of dodgy government-certified VMS suppliers, and vessel safety issues as a result of Labor’s rollout.
The Palaszczuk Labor Government used its numbers in Parliament to shut down a disallowance motion on the rollout, which would have seen the regulations halted while concerns were addressed.
LNP Shadow Minister for Fisheries Tony Perrett slammed the Palaszczuk Labor Government and Fisheries Minster Mark Furner for allowing the poor regulation to stay in place.
“There has been a litany of issues plaguing the rollout since day one,” Mr Perrett said.
“Responder devices have been recording incorrect polling times and are subject to software failures, which stopped them from working.
“Allegations of dodgy practices from the government-certified supplier of one of the endorsed responders has marred the rollout and created frustrations among hundreds of commercial fishers.
“It’s crippling small businesses along the coast when you consider that commercial fishers are not permitted to go out and fish to earn a living while their VMS is broken or not operating.
“Family-run commercial fishing businesses are being put to the wall just because this Labor Government cannot undertake its own due diligence and roll out this VMS regulation.
“Commercial fishers are quite rightly questing government due diligence when there was no Regulatory Impact Statement completed.
“It’s clear that we need to put a hold on this regulation and conduct a full review to find out what went wrong and why the VMS rollout has been such a disaster.
“The LNP backs our Queensland commercial fishing industry and will continue to fight on its behalf.”
The Fisheries (Vessel Tracking) Amendment Regulation 2018 passed parliament at the end of 2018 required all crab, line, net fishers, commercial fishing boats and licensed charter operators to have vessel tracking technology installed and operational from 1 January 2019.
