AFTA lodged its submission to the Commonwealth Marine Parks Review on 25 September, with the support and endorsement of the Boating Industry Association.
AFTA’s position can be stated shortly. This is not about lines on a map. It is about real scientific assessment that delivers real outcomes. Lines drawn to reach a mathematical target do not do that. A percentage achieved is not a conservation outcome — it is an accounting result. The two are only the same thing where the area protected was chosen because of what it protects.
BIA’s backing matters, and not only for the weight it adds. Commonwealth waters begin three nautical miles offshore — everything inside that line is state waters. No Commonwealth marine park can be reached from the shore. Every recreational fisher affected by this review is a boat owner, a passenger, or a charter customer. Boating is not an adjacent interest here; it is the precondition of the activity. Between us the two associations speak for more than 2.5 million licence holders and 950,000 registered vessels.
This review is not about creating new marine parks. It is about redrawing the zoning inside the 44 that already exist, and lifting the amount of Australian ocean in no-take zoning to 30 per cent. No-take means no recreational fishing. The decisions made over the next eighteen months will set offshore access for the following decade.
The most useful thing we found is in the Government’s own numbers. The proposed expansion at Lord Howe and Norfolk would add 671,500 square kilometres of high protection against a national requirement of 523,980. On those figures the commitment is already met, and exceeded. AFTA supports that expansion — but it means any further closure elsewhere is a discretionary choice, and discretionary choices need their own justification.
We put 52 questions to the Department and received written answers. The most important one went our way: recreational line fishing and authorised charter fishing “would not generally be classified as intensive activities”. We have asked that this be written into the draft plans rather than left in correspondence.
The submission makes 58 recommendations. We have asked for a published standard against which closures are assessed, a proper socio-economic assessment before zoning is settled, the combined effect of state and Commonwealth closures measured port by port, and the safety consequences of pushing boats further offshore modelled before boundaries are drawn. Adopting BIA’s own framing, we have asked the Department to apply a triple bottom line test — weighing social and economic outcomes alongside environmental ones.
We are not asking the Department to protect less. We are asking that what is protected be chosen on evidence, and be capable of being shown to have worked.
Thank you to every wholesaler, retailer and charter operator who completed a survey, and to the members who provided detailed assessments. That material is the backbone of the submission and is quoted throughout. Thanks also to BIA for standing with us on it.
Draft plans are expected in 2027 with a second round of consultation. We will be asking for your input again.