“You only have to look at my hands to see there is no fingernails and that is from the government’s reform.”
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Those are the words of Illawarra commercial fisherman Paul Heron – spoken amid a heartfelt plea against planned NSW government changes that will likely see him without a job.
Mr Heron, from Dapto, has trawled Lake Illawarra for most of his life.
He has a wife and a three-year-old son, with another child on the way.
“I have fished for 20 years and basically that is all I know how to do,” the 38-year-old told a recent hearing of a parliamentary inquiry into commercial fishing in NSW.
“Basically this reform will take my job away.”
The inquiry is examining the economic, social, and cultural impacts of regulatory changes to the industry.
Those reforms – part of the government’s Commercial Fisheries Business Adjustment Program, announced last year – include the introduction of minimum shareholding from July 2017.
That means fishers must hold a certain number of shares to be endorsed to fish.
Mr Heron will need to buy more shares, costing thousands of dollars, to keep his business afloat – or receive a one-off payment of $20,000 to call it quits.
“It is basically going to make a small fisher like me, with a young family and a mortgage – I am two years into my mortgage – we are basically going to lose our house,” he told the inquiry.
“The stress and depression that all fishermen are facing through the reform – I have no fingernails.”
Mr Heron said he was currently not fishing as a result of his stress and can’t sleep.
“There are a lot of other fishers out there that are in this position. That is what you guys need to hear,” he told the Senate committee.
“People say it is fantastic and great but it is the fishermen on the end of it that are wearing it. We are the ones losing our jobs.”
Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair told the hearing he had listened to fishers up and down the NSW coast.
“The change is difficult, the change is hard, but it is necessary to have an industry going into the future,” Mr Blair said.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
“This uncertainty has caused me stress, and depression, sleep deprivation as I wonder how to support my family, a wife, a 3-year-old son and a child due in February 2017.
“As it stands now the government is offering $20,000 for my business number and nothing for my shares.
“I must surrender my shares to be sold for whatever they are worth (not determined yet) and never have been. Shares are scarce and prices will go through the roof if any become available.
“As fishers are scared that they won’t have enough shares to continue to fish. Fishers are being forced to hand in their business by having their hands forced behind there [sic] back.
VIDEO: Paul Heron speaks with the Mercury in August
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