‘Someone’s going to get killed’: NSW Fisheries officers strike over unsafe conditions

Threatened with knives, guns pointed at their heads, near daily abuse and aggression - that’s the reality for fisheries officers trying to enforce the thin green line on our waterways.

Fisheries officers patrolling Sydney’s waterways have gone on strike, demanding to be equipped with stab-proof vests and pepper spray like their counterparts interstate, to help them combat what they claim are armed criminals and bikies at sea.

Working alongside NSW Police, fisheries officers investigate illegal fishing activity and damage to marine life, but the small contingent of staff says they’re being threatened with knives, having guns pointed at their heads, and face daily incidents of abuse and aggression - with no means to protect themselves.

“Fisheries officers are being shot at, run down, they have fishing knives pulled on them, someone is going to get killed,” said Troy Wright; the Public Service Association Assistant General Secretary.

“The only equipment we have at our disposal in situations where we are being abused or attacked are batons and handcuffs which are practically archaic,” Mr Wright.

“We’re just asking to match our contemporaries in other jurisdictions like Victoria where they have modern regulations and powers of inspection and enforcement such as capsicum spray, stab-proof vests and body worn cameras.”

Fisheries officers are now taking industrial action, refusing to inspect trawlers without police assistance at night - with the union claiming the NSW government has failed to acknowledge, or act on their safety concerns.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) took the matter to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on Wednesday, and the two parties have been ordered to return to the IRC for arbitration on October 18.

Fisheries NSW vessel off Bondi. Picture: Julian Andrews.

“In 2020 a fishing trawler called Coralynne was caught carrying 1.8 tonnes or $850 million worth of cocaine it had picked up from a larger ship in international waters; if fisheries officers had boarded this boat they might have been killed” Troy Wright said.

It’s this very scenario that veteran fisheries officer, and PSA delegate, Joe Wright fears.

He and his colleague once had a gun aimed at them when they were sitting in wait beside illegal fishing gear on the shoreline of a river after a tip-off from a member of the public.

“We can’t even use binoculars or cameras without the adjoining landowners permission - and often they’re the ones carrying out the illegal activity,” Mr Wright said.

“So we have to sit close to the illegal gear and wait for whoever owns it or is using it to return.

“So here we were - well outside mobile phone service - waiting when the landowner comes running down to us, and points a longarm rifle at our heads.

“We hightailed it out of there - and the man was eventually dealt with by authorities - but in that moment, we were sitting ducks.”

Fisheries officer, and union delegate, Joe Wright, says he and his colleagues have no powers to defend themselves or do proper surveillance. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Mr Wright said the union has raised concerns with the department and NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty around what they see as a deterioration in regulations, and the effect it has had on staff.

“In other states, fisheries officers have access to car and boat licence records like police; they can find out if people are violent offenders and avoid dangerous situations, they can see if someone has a history of crimes against the environment - in NSW we can’t do that,” he said.

“In Victorian or Queensland to be a commercial fisher you need to pass a fit and proper person test, so if you have a prior history of crimes against the environment, or violent crimes you won’t get a licence.

“It’s an absolute joke, to flick a line in at the local wharf mums and dads have to pay for a licence and have it with them, but to run a commercial fishing operation you can have 15 people all pulling out hundreds of fish who have zilch paperwork.”

Illegal abalone haul seized by Fisheries NSW. Picture: Supplied

Fisheries officers have little power of investigation under the “antiquated” Fisheries Management Act 1994, Troy Wright said.

In other states officers can apply to a magistrate to put a tracking device on a boat, in NSW they cannot do that.

Changes to the Federal Telecommunications Act in 2014 saw officers lose their ability to apply for phone records - even though that’s been rectified in every other state and territory’s respective fisheries management legislation.

“We know drug traffickers have infiltrated the commercial industry, miles off the coast in the dead of night we need to board boats, yet unlike other states we don’t have a GPS vessel monitoring system for our commercial fishing fleet, one day fisheries officers will board a boat and they’ll get killed,” Mr Wright said.

“This is why the NSW fishing fleet is so appealing to drug traffickers to pick up cocaine shipments off the continental shelf.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Agriculture said the matter between the PSA and the Department of Primary Industries and is currently before the Industrial Relations Commission and proceedings are confidential.

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Originally published as ‘Someone’s going to get killed’: NSW Fisheries officers strike over unsafe conditions