The Greens have renewed calls for the Albanese government to reject a major expansion of shark nets used in the Queensland Shark Control Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It comes as yet another rescue operation is underway this morning to save a whale stuck in a shark net off the Gold Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Queensland LNP Government has controversially announced plans<\/u><\/a> to expand shark nets, in a move that would need exemptions from already weak federal environment laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe evidence of how damaging shark nets are to our marine wildlife is playing out before our eyes, yet the Queensland government continues to ignore the facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShark nets cause mass destruction to marine wildlife, and evidence proves they do not make our beaches safe. In fact, evidence shows shark nets may attract sharks to beaches, where they can feed on marine wildlife caught in the nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe LNP\u2019s decision to expand the use of shark nets in Queensland\u2019s Shark Control Program goes against the advice<\/u><\/a> of its own government-commissioned report. It is a desperate distraction to create division within communities and is sadly straight out of the culture war playbook that the LNP loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder federal laws the Albanese government has a legal responsibility to protect endangered marine wildlife, including wildlife killed by lethal shark nets and drumlines deployed by the states of Queensland and NSW. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve written to Minister Watt imploring him to use Labor\u2019s upcoming commitment to reform Australia’s environmental laws to remove existing exemptions to state-controlled lethal shark net programs that risk federally protected species.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGovernments can help keep ocean-goers safe by supercharging investment in modern-day alternatives to outdated and ineffective shark nets and lethal drum lines: investing in shark shield personal deterrent devices, shark spotter programs, eco-shark barriers, bite proof wetsuits, and increasing public education are amongst many emerging risk mitigation alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA 2017 Senate Inquiry into shark risk mitigation<\/u><\/a> recommended the federal government show national leadership on driving this investment, but this has so far been ignored \u2013 it\u2019s time to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens have renewed calls for the Albanese government to reject a major expansion of shark nets used in the Queensland Shark Control Program. It comes as yet another rescue operation is underway this morning to save a whale stuck in a shark net off the Gold Coast. The Queensland LNP Government has controversially announced plans to … Continue reading “Nets out now!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33160,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159\/revisions\/33160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}