QLD shark nets and drumlines: Minister refuses to explain $5m backflip

Queensland’s Fisheries Minister is refusing to explain the $5 million “massive backflip” to redeploy shark drumlines and trial new shark control technology on the Great Barrier Reef.

QUEENSLAND’S Fisheries Minister is refusing to explain the $5 million “massive backflip” to redeploy shark drumlines and trial new shark control technology on the Great Barrier Reef.

Tourism operators, surf lifesavers and locals welcomed the decision yesterday to put back more than 160 drumlines at popular beaches in a tried and tested program along the Queensland coast from Gladstone to north of Cairns.

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But many questioned why it took almost five months – after six shark attacks in just over a year – to move to protect the state’s $6 billion reef tourism industry.

“There has been no backflip to explain,’’ a spokesman for Fisheries Minister Mark Furner told The Courier-Mail.

“The original drumlines are going back in, and will be serviced in accordance with a new permit.

“We have agreed to a trial of SMART drumlines.”

CONTROVERSIAL: Drumlines and baited hooks divide views.

Mr Furner refused to comment on what converted him to try SMART drumlines - which send an alert when a shark is hooked so they can be released – after long arguing they were too costly and would not work.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington welcomed the “massive backflip” after Labor pulled the shark drumlines.

She suggested a plan to put smart drumlines into the marine park in September last year.

“For 134 days, Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers attacked the LNP’s plan, playing politics with swimmer safety and putting tourism jobs at risk,’’ Ms Frecklington said.

“They had no Plan B”.