Fisheries

Supporting the right to fish

There are about 300,000 recreational fishers in South Australia. It’s one of the state’s most popular pastimes. Recreational fishing also contributes about $1 billion to the South Australian economy every year and supports around 10,000 jobs – most of them in regional areas.

The right of South Australians to go fishing is being increasingly restricted. Poor management of recreational fisheries in past decades has led to overfishing in some areas, and now the South Australian government is locking recreational fishers out of much of the state’s waters or preventing them from taking certain target species. A ban on fishing for snapper – an iconic and highly prized South Australian fish – is in place across the state except for the South-East.

Ensuring stocks for future generations of recreational fishers always requires some regulation, but One Nation wants it kept to a minimum. It’s often the case that recreational catch limits and lockouts are based on biased, flawed or obsolete data about fish stocks. Environmental activists and animal rights extremists also work very hard to lobby governments to restrict – and ultimately ban – recreational fishing.

One Nation supports the right to fish. We consider that recreational fishers and the contribution they make to local economies in coastal communities will be an important factor in helping these communities recover from the economic and social impacts of South Australia’s algal bloom disaster. One Nation opposes the new arrangements established by the Malinauskas Labor government in October 2025 that placed even more severe limits on recreational fishers while leaving the commercial sector relatively untouched. Observations by the recreational sector that the iconic snapper species has substantially increased in numbers have gone ignored.

We’ll support the recreational fishing sector by:

• resourcing and implementing up-to-date monitoring and assessments of recreational fish stocks in state waters that are independent of the commercial sector;
• establishing reasonable limits – rather than unreasonable limits – to protect fish stocks for future generations while ensuring all fishers can still enjoy their favourite pastime;
• demanding large discounts for recreational fishers’ boating registration and licence fees be entrenched until the state returns to reasonable recreational fishing limits;
• ensuring that all revenue from boating registration and licences is spent solely on relevant infrastructure such as boat ramps and jetties; and
• at the Federal level, halving the fuel excise for at least 12 months.

Supporting the South Australian seafood industry

South Australia’s commercial fishing sector is significant, generating about $478 million for the state’s economy from a total catch of 72,900 tonnes in 2023-24 and directly supporting about 2300 jobs and indirectly supporting another 1000 jobs. The sector is highly focused on exports with sought-after species such as southern bluefin tuna, southern rock lobster, abalone, oysters and prawns dominating this market.

One major issue that goes unaddressed by the major parties in South Australia is that our state is a net importer of seafood. About 60% of the seafood consumed by South Australians is sourced from overseas. Nationally, Australian seafood exports are valued at about $1.3 billion but imports are around $2.2 billion. This makes little sense considering Australia has one of the largest national fisheries in the world at more than eight million square kilometres. This is partly due to Australia also having one of the most restrictive national fisheries, with large parts of it closed to both commercial and recreational fishing on dubious ideological environmental grounds. It’s also due to the fact that much of Australia’s seafood imports are cheaper.

One Nation will support the South Australian seafood industry by:

• resourcing and implementing up-to-date monitoring and assessments of commercial fish stocks in state waters;
• ensuring that biosecurity measures and agencies are sufficiently resourced to effectively guard against pest species and diseases impacting commercial fishing and aquaculture;
• prohibiting the purchase of commercial fishing licences and quotas by any entity other than commercial fishers or the state government;
• prohibiting the purchase of commercial fishing licences and quotas by foreign entities and prohibiting foreign-flagged fishing vessels – especially ‘factory’ vessels – from South Australian fisheries;
• opposing any moves to declare no-go zones or national parks that prevent fishing in South Australian waters;
• exploring initiatives to increase the volume of South Australian seafood available for purchase locally, and reducing imports;
• exploring incentives to promote more local on-shore processing and packaging of South Australian seafood;
• reversing Labor’s changes to industrial relations law damaging small businesses; and
• Federally, halving the fuel excise for at least 12 months – with an option to review and extend – to reduce operating costs for commercial fishers.