Picture: ANDREW KACIMAIWAI
NSW Fisheries officers say they are being shot at, threatened with knives and baseball bats, and had cars driven at them.
And they are taking industrial action to receive protective equipment like stab-proof vests and capsicum spray.
The Public Service Association (PSA) says fisheries officers will now avoid designated areas and individuals amid fears that criminals and poachers have taken over and are even plundering valuable species like abalone and rock lobster.
Without direct police help, the PSA says, officers will not complete night inspections of trawlers.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) tried to force them back into night work last week via an Industrial Relations Commission which refused to order them, the PSA says.
But a DPI spokesperson says the matter is still before the commission.
“The government will continue to work in good faith with the unions,” the spokesperson says.
“The government wants the matter settled in a way that is fair, reasonable and achievable.”
A PSA statement says officers want the same powers as their interstate counterparts to check boat and car registrations, conduct surveillance, investigate and (get) real-time GPS tracking of the entire commercial fishing fleet.
They also want to see a ‘fit and proper person’ test introduced for commercial fishing licence holders and crew within six months.
Assistant general secretary of the PSA, Troy Wright says the officers’ lives are in danger.
“Fisheries officers are being shot at, run down, having fishing knives pulled on them — someone’s going to get killed,” says Wright.
The DPI spokesperson says that the government understands the risks of being a fisheries officer.
“It takes the safety of fisheries officers extremely seriously,” the spokesperson says.
Wright says officers in other states can access car and boat licence records like police.
“They can find out if people are violent offenders and avoid dangerous situations, they can see if someone has a history of crimes against the environment – in NSW we can’t do that,” he says.
Wright points out that in Victoria or Queensland, to be a commercial fisher a ‘fit and proper’ test is needed for a licence.
“Fisheries officers have no powers of investigation; they can’t even use binoculars or a camera. In other states, they can apply to a magistrate to put a tracking device on a boat; here they can’t do that. Why?”
“Fisheries officers can’t even run a rego check on a boat they physically pull up alongside,” Wright says.
“In Queensland they track every boat via GPS so they know where each boat is, who’s the skipper and what they’re doing.
“It’s not just miles off the coast; Fisheries Officers are intercepting poachers with thousands of dollars’ worth of abalone and rock lobster at all hours of the night.
“There’s big money in poaching; every abalone is a $50 note. All you need is a wetsuit and a knife, and you can lever a couple of 100 off the rocks in a few hours; it’s big money.”
