New South Wales has a unique ocean landscape where tropical and temperate waters meet. But the marine life our oceans support is under threat of mass extinction due to climate change, shipping, pollution, foreshore development, introduced species and over-fishing. Scientific evidence overwhelmingly says that marine species will only survive these threats if we create no-take sanctuary zones where fish can breed and larval can replenish.

Fishing communities adjacent to sanctuary zones benefit from increased abundance and size of species, but their concerns about being excluded from a region have been exploited by political opportunists that has meant that in the last ten years New South Wales has not introduced a new sanctuary zone and revoked two existing zones. Only about seven percent of the marine environment is conserved through no-take zones when we need to protect 30 percent by 2030.

In Parliament I called for an overhaul of marine protection with better community information and consultation, transfer of portfolio responsibility from industry to environment, and greater accountability for marine park revocations. My private members’ statement > HERE