“Ongoing certification contingent on an international review, implementation of proper consultation with stakeholders and a necessity to address deficiencies in research needed for proper management is not exactly a resounding endorsement.

“Beyond the misrepresentation of MSC endorsement, the Minister manages to include another half dozen misleading statements.

“The $150 million dollar industry he refers to was actually a $300 million one before he began to manage it. Competent management involves the sustainability of the industry as well as that of the resource. It is moronically simple to impose excessive restrictions and claim to be saving the resource while devastating the industry.

“The Minister’s decisions have done more than just “upset some fishermen”. Excessive restrictions and repeated changes to them threaten many fishermen with bankruptcy. This, coming when stocks are clearly at record abundance, has not just some, but the overwhelming majority of fishermen, struggling and angry.

“The Minister says he is acting, “…on the best scientific advice available to me.” However, he has repeatedly ignored and refused to even acknowledge receipt of scientific advice and evidence from outside his department. He describes departmental advice as “scientifically rigorous” even though it has been found deficient for sound management by the MSC as well as at least two independent reviews and several highly respected fishery scientists from elsewhere.

“Most extraordinarily, the Minister describes advice from his department as coming, “…from scientists who have no vested interest.” The Department is experiencing significant budget cuts, job losses and an ongoing criminal investigation by the CCC. With reputations, jobs and budgets under threat, department scientists would seem to have considerable vested interest in justifying themselves and delivering advice which supports the perceived agenda. If someone can not recognise this, it would not be unwarranted to wonder if such a person has the ability to recognise and set aside personal interest in their own judgements.

“The Minister seems to believe that, “the survival of the fishery” is at risk. Apparently he is unaware that all over the world, with or without management, lobster fisheries are subject to large variations in annual catch and, with or without management, they recover. The best management has been able to achieve is to smooth out the peaks and troughs while perhaps increasing the average by a small amount. Subjecting the industry to frequent, excessive and unexplained restrictions on the basis of highly uncertain predictions already proved wrong by events looks more like incompetence or a hidden agenda than it does precaution.

“In fairness to the Minister, it is absurd that with the many critical and complex problems in the fishing industry, his position is a part time job after his day job overseeing the huge and vastly important mining industry. This is especially inexcusable when the government has an eminently qualified backbencher who could provide Fisheries the attention and expertise so badly needed.”

The current problems in the West Australian cray-fishing industry are causing massive financial stress on many families up and down our coastline.

Whilst ever the state government and the fishing industry cannot agree on an acceptable solution there appears there will not be a happy ending to this issue.