With a WA Senate by-election date set for 5 April, we are seeing strategic thinkers amongst the federal political right attempting to claw back public credibility after the Abbott government’s first six months in office.

Last Thursday, Andrew Laming, the Liberal-National member for Bowman in Queensland, came out swinging against shark culling, both as a practice conducted in his own electorate and in WA. He urged that in relation to the shark hazard “actions need to be based on evidence,” adding that as an ocean swimmer who has been watching shark culling in his electorate for a very long time, he has personally felt “deeply uncomfortable with it”. Anti-shark cull sentiment in his electorate was very strong, he added during his ABC interview.

I am sure Laming is genuine in his comments, but I believe there is something disingenuous about the timing. Why did he keep quiet three months ago, when this policy was first announced? Is it not just the fact that the Liberals have been blindsided by the overwhelming public opposition to shark culling in every state, and that a national-based poll on the issue has seen them turning to damage-control, especially now a key Senate by-election has been called?

Federal environment minister Greg Hunt also appeared to be seeking political kudos this week by announcing that for the Barnett shark cull to continue beyond 30 April, it would have to pass muster in a full assessment under federal environmental legislation. This only goes to confirm what the Greens and other cull opponents, including highly qualified shark scientists, have said from day one: that the exemption granted by Hunt in early January was based on dubious grounds and fails the science test.

While Laming and Hunt may be looking for a way to back-pedal out of trouble with the electorate over sharks, the prime minister and WA premier are not making their job any easier.

Colin Barnett was still recently citing personal theories in the media about the behaviour and whereabouts of large sharks as the basis for the future of his drum lining strategy, while still failing to ground any of his theories in scientific evidence. Abbott was backing him up, stating “it’s a state issue but what Colin’s doing has been done successfully off the coast of Queensland for decades.”

Not exactly “successfully”, however. Queensland averages 500-600 dead sharks a year from netting and drum lining, 50% of which are less than two metres long, only 1% of which are great white sharks (the only shark that is a danger to humans in WA waters based on the evidence) and a large number of which are listed as vulnerable or endangered including the grey nurse, dusky whaler, scalloped hammerhead, speartooth and zebra shark. None of these sharks are considered dangerous, just endangered.

The fact that it may be politically difficult due to public fear to remove a shark nets and drum lines shark control program that was introduced in the 1960s does not make that policy a success. It just makes it an out-dated policy that hasn’t been replaced. I note that whereas other countries such as Hawaii have stopped shark culls, WA is the only jurisdiction in the world that has introduced one in the current century. Barnett’s shark cull policy, introduced with the complicity of the federal liberal government, is a strategy that literally hales from half a century ago, not one based on the state of knowledge and awareness in 2014.

Hawaii culled more than 4,500 sharks between 1959 and 1976 and has said no to culling ever since, even following a spate of fatal attacks in the early 1990s. According to the chairman of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, culling was briefly considered in 1992 and then dismissed on environmental and cultural grounds. “We opted instead to put our efforts into research, which showed that … culling would have devastating ecological consequences,” he told a Perth newspaper last month, adding:

In Hawaii, we recognise that we are a state which depends on the surrounding ocean for our sustenance, economic benefits, recreational opportunities and cultural lifestyle. We also recognise and respect the importance of scientific research to help us understand, manage and protect our vital ocean resource. The millions of people who live here or visit need to recognise that the ocean is a natural environment where there are predators.

The Greens believe the same is true in Western Australia.