Member for Leichhardt Matt Smith and Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill discuss next steps with the Australian Border Force. Photo: Supplied.
Member for Leichhardt Matt Smith has assured that Operation BROADSTAFF is only the first step in addressing illegal foreign fishing.
He and Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill will travel to the Torres Strait later this month to begin community consultations for long-term solutions.
The assurance comes after pushback from Torres Strait leaders, who welcomed Operation BROADSTAFF as a recognition of the severity of the situation, but were unhappy about the lack of consultation prior to its launch.
“Anything done for the Torres Strait must be done in consultation with the Torres Strait Regional Leadership Group,” Torres Strait Island Regional Council Mayor Phillemon Mosby said.
“It is an affront that this response has been designed without us as regional leaders.”
Mr Smith said the operation, which involved deploying additional resources to intercept foreign vessels, was only just beginning, and community consultation was a major part of the solution.
“It’s the first part of a two-pronged process,” he said.
“The second part of this involves Julian and I, and some of the commanders from Border Force, going back up to the Torres Strait, meeting with the community, and getting an understanding from them about how they want this to look going forward.
“Operation BROADSTAFF is not a one-week thing, it’s not a two-week thing, it’s going to be an ongoing program.”
He said consultation was not done in the design process as they needed to “stem the bleeding” first.
“If you go through a full consultation process, it could have taken weeks, it could have taken months, and we start drowning in boats,” he said.
“We had to act quickly and decisively; we had to cut this thing off before it became too much of a problem, and that’s what we did.
“It will be driven by the community of the Torres Strait to ensure that this program is sustainable, and ensure buy-in from the local community.”
