Tassie super-trawler ads bring feds to the fore

FEDERAL issues continue to threaten the Tasmanian Liberals in the state election lead-up.

FEDERAL issues continue to threaten the Tasmanian Liberals in the state election lead-up, with the party now facing a major attack-advertising campaign over the Coalition’s support for super-trawlers.

Recreational fishermen have joined with environment groups to fund an advertising blitz attacking the Liberal Party for its willingness to consider lifting the ban on the Abel Tasman super-trawler. The Australian has learned the alliance against the factory ship has booked 500 slots on commercial TV from tonight until the March 15 polling day.

The focus of the campaign, which will include print and radio ads, is on the northern and rural electorates where the Liberals need to pick up seats to win majority government: Braddon, Lyons and Bass.

Tasmanians have the highest rate of boat ownership in Australia and the recreational fishing lobby has considerable clout.

State Labor, languishing at 25 per cent or less in recent polls, is running a campaign based largely on federal issues, particularly the Coalition’s scaling-back of the National Broadband Network, education funding and the GST.

The state Liberals — who have pledged to govern in majority or not at all — fear these federal issues could erode their vote to the point where the party falls a seat short of the 13 needed for majority.

Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Richard Colbeck last year told The Australian he would consider lifting the two-year ban on the super-trawler’s operation, depending on the outcome of expert panel and revised fish stock assessments.

The “Stop the Trawler” ads, funded by Environment Tasmania and recreational fishing groups, demand the Liberals pledge support for a permanent ban on super-trawlers.

“I can’t even understand why the Liberals are thinking of lifting the ban,” says recreational fisherman Todd Lambert in the TV ads to begin tonight. “Tell the Liberals and all other political parties to protect the breeding grounds of all our fish.”

Mr Lambert is a senior organiser with the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union and conceded to The Australian yesterday that he was also a member of the Labor Party. However, he said he had been involved with the super-trawler campaign before joining the staff of the CEPU and the ranks of the Labor Party. “We are having a go at them (Labor) as well,” Mr Lambert said.

Liberal leader Will Hodgman was on Monday caught on microphone telling one of his MPs he feared changes to the NBN rollout could cost the party government.

Yesterday, Labor Premier Lara Giddings promised to forgo $25 million in rental for state-owned power poles if the federal Coalition agreed to her proposal to finish the NBN rollout in Tasmania via overhead cabling.