Northern Territory Illegal Fishing Vessels Netted

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs Warren Snowdon said today Operation Breakwater has been a triumph for cooperation and collaboration.

Mr Snowdon congratulated the Fisheries, Quarantine, Customs and Defence personnel in the exercise for catching 23 illegal foreign fishing vessels over the past month.

'They've done a great job, they've proved the point that cross-agency collaboration is the way to go and I think they've proved Australian Labor Party policy on a coastguard service is sound and workable,' he said.

'Clearly the threat of incursions by illegal foreign fishing vessels will continue.

'If Operation Breakwater points the way to how we deal with this threat in future, then the message is loud and clear that we shouldn't just rely on opportunistic collaborations.

'We have to have a fulltime professional Coastguard service and we have to have it soon.

'But think how much more successful Operation Breakwater would have been if they'd got Aboriginal rangers involved.

'Sea rangers have already proved the worth of their knowledge of country and I believe there has to be an official place for them in coastal surveillance.

'I'm not alone in the ALP in this either: a recent visit to Maningrida by the Caucus task force on maritime security was mightily impressed by what the Djelk Rangers have achieved with a couple of big tinnies.

'If they were integrated into a Coastguard, properly paid and better resourced, they'd be making an even more formidable contribution to maintaining the integrity of our coastline and inshore waters.

'This government has to move on and learn both the lessons of Breakwater and the practical value of working with Indigenous rangers,' Mr Snowdon said.

2006-04-06