Ausmarine editorial – January 2009
For nearly fifteen years Australian governments, irrespective of whether they leant left or right, have shown little to no interest in matters maritime.
Indeed, since the early 80s to early 90s when Peter Nixon (National Party), Peter Morris, John Button and John Kerin (Labor) were ministers, most government attention to the marine or maritime sector was malign.
That is why I was surprised, in fact shocked, to receive a positive press release from Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and just about everything else. The release, which is printed in full in our news section on page 20, was issued on behalf of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
The reason for my surprise is that AIMS is, along with the CSIRO and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), a leading member of the malevolent "gang of three". These "scientific research" organisations have until now been noted for their anti-marine industry approach. In fact they have often been vehemently so.
You could, therefore, have knocked me over with a feather after I read this release's positive comments about Australia's marine industry.
Notwithstanding the fact that AIMS has undoubtedly wasted a great deal of taxpayers' money commissioning the accounting firm Deloittes to conduct a survey, the resulting sentiments are encouraging. Perhaps, now AIMS might do what it should have done in the first place. That is to conduct research for the Index of Marine Industry Survey itself.
Such a direct involvement might have enabled AIMS to acquire a real "scientific" knowledge of the industry that it now seems so enthusiastic to support.
Now that AIMS has turned its former negativity on its head, can we expect CSIRO to recant and apologise for all its spurious science that was used to damage our Northern Prawn and Southern Bluefin Tuna industries. It's difficult to imagine, but maybe even GBRMPA might see the light and do something to repair some of the damage it has done to the East Coast fishing industry and to marine tourism.
It is important to remind readers of all the destructive history of organisations like AIMS. However, to be fair to Senator Carr, we should try to be optimistic that his new broom might sweep clean. It is certainly high time that the marine industry received a fair go from government. The Howard coalition government was largely disastrous for all sectors except, perhaps, leisure.
I note that in releasing news of the AIMS Index of Marine Industry, Senator Carr specifically mentioned what it excluded. Hopefully, the Minister will encourage further work on the very important social and environmental value of various marine industry sectors such as commercial fishing and aquaculture.
The brief figures given of the value of the various sectors are very "broad brush" and could easily be refined by a more seriously conducted survey. For example, ports, shipping, shipbuilding and the Navy are not even mentioned in the release.
To re-establish its bona fides and dispel the distrust it has engendered over the years, AIMS will have to work hard to build bridges with industry. It will need to do this in the wider sense and not just with hitherto favoured sectors like leisure and tourism.
Despite my cynicism, I really hope that AIMS has turned over a new leaf. I just hope that they get it right and don't squander the promise of this welcome initiative.
We should all support and encourage Senator Carr. It is to be hoped that, properly channelled, his obvious enthusiasm will infect AIMS and its CSIRO and GBRMPA counterparts.