Small business to bear the brunt of IR law changes, page-3

WHAT IS IT WITH #LABOR THAT THEY WANT TO DESTROY ENTIRE ICONIC #AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES?????????????

First, they came for the Fishers …

Earlier this year Labor passed the Agriculture and Fisheries and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023, which contained a number of draconian amendments.

Under changes made to the Biosecurity Act 2014, ‘authorised biosecurity officers’ no longer need to obtain an occupant’s consent, before entering a premises.

According to the government, having to seek consent to enter a home or building, might be “confusing if consent is not given”, and therefore officers should be given the power to just enter without having to obtain consent first.

A line of reasoning which, of course, made no sense whatsoever.

Why is the ‘go-to’ for Labor, always this heavy-handed, rights-stripping, approach?

The bill also amended the Fisheries Act, investing more executive powers in the Minister, including the power to impose new conditions on a ‘commercial fishing authority’, even prevent its use altogether, without the holder having any right to respond, or object.

According to Labor, the new powers were justified, because it is:

“essential to ensure that behaviour is modified and there are appropriate consequences for failing to do so”.

Let that sink in.

The Bill also imposed a requirement for “camera monitoring equipment” to be installed on all fishing trawlers, to monitor and record all onboard activities.

A ‘Big Brother’ measure that should ring alarm bells within other ‘targeted’, sectors, especially agriculture.

If surveillance cameras are deemed necessary to prevent ‘overfishing’, why wouldn’t they be used to prevent other forms of wrongdoing? How many times your cows fart, perhaps?

Something to think about.

Queensland’s wild harvest fisheries, is already the most massively over-regulated and over-surveilled industry in the state.

Vessels are monitored by an array of satellites,/planes/drones that constantly track their position and activities.

Now they must install cameras on their vessels as well, to record where they fish and haul in catches.

This will enable authorities to build an extensive record of fisheries data on every single vessel and crew member in the fisheries fleet.

Making it a veritable treasure trove for government and third-party operators.

Under the Act, data can be ‘shared’ for any number of ‘legitimate’ purposes, all without the knowledge or consent of the authority holder.

Video surveillance is a particularly abhorrent violation of people’s privacy. Particularly for fishers, whose trawlers as not just a workplace, but a second home.

It also infringes their property rights, since the data being gathered includes highly valuable commercial knowledge and trade secrets.

A fisher’s secret spots, also known as “marks”, and unique knowledge base, are his most valuable asset.

Often, this knowledge has been handed down to them by their fathers, or even grandfathers.

The bill contains no safeguards or protections around confidentiality or intellectual property rights. Nor is there a right to compensation for any data breaches.

Is it any wonder that the fishing industry feels so persecuted and criminalised by a system that continues to apply a presumption of guilt towards the sector?