Our Plan to Back Australian Fisheries and Forestry

The Coalition has a strong record supporting Australia’s fisheries and forestry sectors. We know they are vital to our economy, environment and way of life. 

Together, Australia’s fishing and forestry industries contribute nearly $10 billion to the national economy.

They support thousands of jobs and small businesses, particularly in regional communities, while providing Australia and the world with clean, safe and sustainably sourced timber and seafood. Commercial and recreational fishing also make a substantial contribution to tourism and many local economies. 

The Coalition wants to grow these industries, helping them to harvest and value-add more of what we need and consume. That means better investment opportunities, creating more jobs and more economic activity. 

Despite this, Labor is pushing policies that threaten commercial and recreational fishing, restricting access to key fishing zones and imposing crushing red tape that undermine the industry’s viability. Our salmon farmers have been held hostage by the Albanese Government through a dubious, drawn-out environmental approval process. The businesses and livelihoods of Queensland gillnet fishers have also been crushed. 

Meanwhile, the Greens have openly called for even more bans and “phasing out” of key fisheries.

The future of the salmon industry will be in serious jeopardy under a returned Albanese Government. 

The reckless closure of native forestry operations in Victoria and Western Australia by Labor governments is a warning sign Tasmania and New South Wales are next. 

This will cost thousands of jobs and raise the price of timber products, making the construction of new homes even more expensive. It will force Australia to import wood from countries with far weaker environmental standards.

Unlike Labor and the Greens, the Coalition believes these sectors must be managed responsibly and supported to grow. 

These industries are not just vital—they are worth fighting for. 

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Provide lasting certainty to the salmon industry
• Ensure government regulation is balanced and genuine 
• Put communities first on offshore wind
• Establish new Permanent Timber Production Zones
• Support Australian timber manufacturing 
• Crack down on illegal fishing 
• Deliver country of origin labelling that works for consumers and businesses 

We will create a stronger economy to get Australia back on track. Our plan will ensure Australia’s fisheries and forestry sectors have certainty to grow, and remain strong, sustainable, and key parts of our nation’s future.

Our Plan

Provide lasting certainty to the salmon industry

A Dutton Coalition Government will secure the future of Australia’s salmon industry.

Unlike Labor, which subjected the Tasmanian salmon farming industry to an 18-month review process that placed its entire future in jeopardy, the Coalition will stand firm with the industry and end the uncertainty. 

We will change the laws to stop such a catastrophic process from ever happening again.

We will immediately review Chilean salmon import requirements into Australia. This review will respond to concerns over the potential food safety risks to Australian consumers.

Tasmania’s salmon industry is a global leader, employing thousands of workers and contributing significantly to the state’s economy. It deserves far more than the lip service, quick political fixes and workarounds that Labor has offered.

Nothing is certain with the Labor Party if they are re-elected. Labor remains bitterly divided over protections for salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.

A Labor-Greens government will unwind laws protecting the industry. Its radical Nature Positive agenda, with an out-of-control Federal Environment Protection Authority, will have devastating consequences for Tasmania.

We acknowledge the importance of protecting the Maugean Skate.

However, there must be a sensible, sustainable balance between the conservation of our precious and unique natural environments and safeguarding the economic and social future of our communities. 

The Coalition will always stand on the side of supporting jobs, food production and regional prosperity – not political games that put entire industries at risk.

Ensure government regulation is balanced and genuine

A Dutton Coalition Government will end the long delays in the environmental assessment of industry projects and activities and improve the rules around potential legal challenges to assessment decisions. 

Under the Albanese Government, industry investment and job creation in Australia has become strangled by excessive red and green tape.

Our approach will ensure that what has happened in cases like the Barossa Gas project, the Blayney gold mine, and Tasmanian salmon farming never happens again.

We will slash project approval times in half without compromising on standards, restrict the now-excessive use of ‘stop the clock’ provisions, and accredit states and territories to grant approvals that meet Commonwealth legislative requirements. 

We will ensure the economic and social benefits of a project are considered in making a decision.

We will also immediately end the taxpayer funding and encouragement that Labor has provided to discredited environmental groups, like the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO). 

Australian taxpayers should not be forced to fund activists like the EDO whose core mission is to disrupt and even stop vital industry projects across Australia. 

The Coalition will deliver more certainty, fewer delays and less confusion around these assessments, delivering better outcomes for the economy and the environment.

Put communities first on offshore wind

A Dutton Coalition Government will put the community first and scrap the Offshore Wind Zones in Bunbury, Hunter, Illawarra and Southern Ocean in Victoria.

Labor has deliberately ignored serious economic, social, and environmental concerns raised by residents about these proposed wind zones, which have been recklessly placed in critical fishing grounds, jeopardising local fishers’ livelihoods.

Recreational fishers, tourism operators, community groups, small business owners, and residents have been left behind by a Labor Government intent on pushing through projects that communities do not want, in its damaging pursuit of a ‘renewables-only’ electricity grid.

The Coalition has consulted closely with concerned residents and has concluded that offshore wind in these zones is not tenable. These industrial scale projects risk undermining fishers’ livelihoods, seafood supply, tourism and coastal communities who rely on sustainable fisheries.

We support responsible growth in renewables, not Labor’s reckless renewables overbuild. By minimising the footprint and costs of our energy system through a balanced mix of renewables, gas and zero-emissions nuclear energy, the Coalition will deliver economic and environmental benefits for all Australians.

If elected, we will ensure these four bungled offshore wind projects do not proceed.

Establish New Permanent Timber Production Zones

A Dutton Coalition Government will not support any further bans on native forestry.

Instead, we will work with state and territory governments to establish Permanent Timber Production Zones, to support ongoing access to both native and plantation timber.

These zones have already been in use in Tasmania and are aimed at permitting ongoing timber harvesting in designated areas whilst also achieving more sustainable biodiversity outcomes.

Over many years, vast areas of Australia’s land mass have been locked up in some form of reserve, preventing any economic activity from occurring. Many forests previously used for productive forestry purposes have been locked up without valid conservation reasons. While some reserves are appropriate, many were set aside for political purposes rather than genuine conservation. It is time to get the balance right.

Bans and other actions aimed at stopping or reducing forestry in Australia only shift this activity to areas of the world with lower environmental standards than ours. Supporting native forestry here will secure jobs, and better meet Australian consumers’ needs, especially at a time when there is growing demand for timber.

Support Australian timber manufacturing

A Dutton Coalition Government will provide $40 million in matched grants to establish a new Timber Manufacturing Expansion Program to increase timber production capacity in our country. To be eligible, timber mills must utilise wood from their own region and, as a result, create more jobs in regional communities.

Australia is currently seeing a sharp rise in imported timber, often from countries with lower environmental standards and worse forestry practices. This program will boost local production and reduce reliance on these imports.

After three years of Labor neglecting regional communities and the industries that support them, a Dutton Coalition Government will work with the private sector to grow timber production and create more value-added opportunities.

This investment will create jobs in regional communities and provide more choice for Australian-made, environmentally sustainable options when it comes to timber products that all Australian households consume.

Crack down on illegal foreign fishing 

Labor, alongside their weak stance on people smugglers, has allowed illegal foreign fishing vessels to proliferate in Australian waters and take Australian fish, denying Australians what is rightfully theirs.

These fishing operations often result in illegally harvested fish being sold into Australian markets with no economic benefit flowing back to the communities across Australia that depend on the fishing industry for economic life.

A Dutton Coalition Government will review Operation Lunar and related biosecurity activities undertaken by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Australian Border Force to ensure settings are fit-for-purpose to crack down on illegal fishing occurring in Australian waters. We will seek to prosecute illegal fishers onshore where appropriate.

Deliver Country of Origin Labelling that works for consumers and businesses

A Dutton Coalition Government will introduce country-of-origin labelling for wood and fix the issues caused by Labor’s flawed seafood labelling rollout.

Australia grows, harvests and manufactures timber more sustainably than other countries, yet we import large amounts from places with weak environmental and human rights standards. We will work with industry to ensure consumers know where their timber comes from.

We will also promote Australian seafood by helping consumers distinguish between local and imported products. Labor’s harmful policies, including its ill-considered gillnet ban in Queensland, has meant more imported seafood is flooding into the domestic market.

As part of this approach, we will commit $2 million to assist businesses to adjust to new country of origin seafood labelling laws. 

The Choice

Labor and the Greens have relentlessly attacked Australia’s fisheries and forestry industries, putting jobs, regional communities, and local businesses at risk.

The Coalition has a long-standing commitment to these industries. This is evidenced by our support of Australia’s marine park network and our efforts to protect our oceans, without unjustly damaging the livelihoods of thousands of workers in our seafood industry.

A Labor and Greens minority Government will see the end of native forestry, despite Australia’s forestry sector being one of the most sustainable in the world.

Labor and the Greens have already shut down the live sheep export trade.

If critical industries such as fisheries and forestry are shut down, workers and their families will have little choice but to leave their communities for jobs elsewhere. It will decimate regional communities.

Australia needs a government that backs our industries and businesses. A government which backs our regional communities and the industries and workers that underpin them.

The choice is clear, Labor wants to appease Green activist groups. The Coalition doesn’t.

The Coalition stands firmly with fishers and foresters.

We will back sustainable, science-based industry practices ensuring jobs are protected from radical attacks from Labor and the Greens.

Only the Coalition will fight for the future of Australian fishing and forestry.

On top of significant Australia-wide measures to support businesses and the economy, the Coalition will invest $44 million in the forestry and fisheries sector to support their growth and prosperity.