Party brings in private member's bill to tackle an environmental exemption it dismisses as a 'cynical PR exercise'

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Greens have launched the latest attempt to stop the trapping and killing of sharks in Western Australia, putting forward a private member’s bill that would halt the cull program.



The Senate bill would alter the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act so the government could not offer an exemption for the purposes of using drumlines to catch sharks.

Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, allowed the WA government to kill sharks, including the protected great white, as part of its attempt to prevent attacks on swimmers and surfers.

Hunt exempted the action from assessment under provisions which allow the federal government to wave through activities that deal with matters of national security or emergencies.

The Greens said section 158 of the act should change so this could not happen in the future. The amendment would also be retrospective, meaning the WA drumlines would be removed while an environmental assessment is made.

Rachel Siewert, the Greens’ marine spokeswoman, told Guardian Australia Hunt’s exemption was “extraordinary” and should never have been made.

“This provision was meant for emergency situations, meaning a program with a significant impact on the marine environment wasn’t assessed,” she said.

“This shark cull was a cynical PR exercise that completely misread the sentiment of people in WA. There is overwhelming support in WA to end the cull because people see the nonsense of it.”

Siewert said it was a “no-brainer” for Labor to support the bill to put pressure on the government, given its criticism of Hunt for granting WA an environmental exemption.

But Louise Pratt, Labor’s senator for WA, told Guardian Australia the Greens bill was a “stunt”.

“We haven’t seen the legislation yet, so we can’t say one way or the other whether we’ll support it,” she said. “I would point out that it is bound to fail in any case because clearly there aren’t the numbers in the House of Representatives.

“Mark Butler, the shadow minister, has said he would’ve done things differently to Greg Hunt, who abused the EPBC act. So the only way we can protect sharks in the long term is to have a government with good environmental values. The Greens have limited value in providing this.”

The WA shark cull began in January, following seven shark attack deaths in the previous three years. More than 70 baited hooks, attached to drumlines, have been strung up 1km from popular Perth and south-west WA beaches.

If caught, great white, tiger and bull sharks more than three metres in length will be shot by contractors in patrol boats, while other sharks will be set free if still alive.

A court challenge to the cull, brought by Sea Shepherd, was recently thrown out, and the state’s Environmental Protection Authority declined to assess the program despite 23,000 submissions urging it to do so.

The WA government has said the cull is necessary to protect beachgoers but critics have said it is cruel and counter-productive because it draws sharks closer to the beach to eat the bait.