Shadow Portfolio — 23 March 2026

The Opposition Whip, Mr Small, Member for Forrest, used a government motion celebrating $85 billion in agricultural, fisheries and forestry exports as the vehicle for a direct attack on the Western Australian demersal fishing ban [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s168]. The procedural objection was pointed: the Opposition's argument is that the government cannot credibly celebrate primary industry export achievements while simultaneously imposing a ban that Mr Small contends will gut a viable WA fishery with less than one month's notice.

The core factual claim is that WA demersal fishery output will fall from approximately 400 tonnes annually to less than half that figure, pushing local businesses toward imported product rather than domestic catch. Mr Small sharpened the sustainability challenge by placing Australian import volumes alongside the ban's rationale — Australia imported 211,000 tonnes of seafood from Asia in the prior year, representing more than 70 per cent of domestic consumption, and Vietnam's fishing concentration in its own controlled waters is 23 times higher than the WA demersal fishery [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s168].

The argument is that the ban substitutes a less sustainable outcome — heavier reliance on overseas-sourced seafood from higher-intensity fisheries — for a comparatively low-intensity domestic one, undermining the sustainability rationale the government has advanced. Mr Small also criticised the absence of the state Member for Bunbury from a community rally held in support of the local fishing industry, framing the government's posture as performative rather than substantive.

The day's parliamentary activity is tightly focused: a single intervention, but structured to expose what the Opposition characterises as an internal contradiction between the government's export-promotion narrative and its fisheries regulation in practice.