I boat, I vote: Guide to the 2023 NSW state election

Over the last few years, NSW’s boating and fishing community has shown it has teeth, successfully campaigning against Labor’s proposal in 2019 to float a luxury boat tax in the state to Liberal-led plans in 2018 to lock up large parts of the state’s coastline in marine parks.

Surprisingly, little is happening regarding attracting the boating and fishing vote next weekend.

The state’s current managers have invested heavily in some infrastructure around the state, including a program to install wave attenuators at Eden mainly for the benefit of attracting cruise ships to the port rather than recreational anglers launching trailer boats.

However, little appears to be on the agenda of the other parties contesting the election.

Let’s look at the main political parties and see what’s on the ticket for voters.

It appears the 2019 backlash against plans to extend NSW’s marine park network, effectively locking off large swathes of coastline and parts of Sydney Harbour from recreational angling, is still strong in the mind of the incumbent government.

In the final week of the campaign, the Perrottet Government has promised a $25 million upgrade program to be rolled out across NSW with $25 million dedicated just to boat ramps, fishing facilities such as cleaning tables, parking and more.

Around $5.5 million will be spent opening up more waterways in Western
Sydney for recreational use and to boost fishing infrastructure at sites including the Penrith Lakes Parkland, and along the Georges and Parramatta rivers.

The push to increase access to fishing in western Sydney is a direct response to the pandemic lockdowns where millions of residents in the city's east had access to the water, with residents in the west left landlocked.

Of note, the government has been highly critical of PEP 11, a proposal to explore a 4500-square-kilometre section of waters off Sydney for potential new petroleum projects. This may impact offshore fishing in the area.

Labor came on strong in the lead-up to the 2019 state election, promising the state’s 770,000 recreational anglers that they would have more say in how the millions of dollars they paid in licence fees should be spent.

Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work out.

The Chris Minns-led opposition has said it will look at opening up Prospect Reservoir in western Sydney to kayakers and shore-based fishers. The reason behind this was the 2019 COVID-19 lockdowns, where millions of people in eastern Sydney had access to water despite a 5km travel restriction, and those in the west had nothing.

It has also flagged plans to redevelop the Gosford waterfront, saying it will spend a conservative $8.5 million looking at ways to squeeze the most out of converting the area into an “iconic waterfront”.

The party representing rural NSW has one long-term policy that will help recreational boaters and fishers – it wants to ensure more new dams are built throughout the state.

This minor party was a real voice in the lead-up to the 2019 NSW election and a subsequent by-election, going in to bat for the state’s recreational fishers as they fought the expansion of marine parks in the state.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party has two members in the NSW upper house:  Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak.

Among other things, the SFFP is campaigning for a review of how recreational fishing trusts are spent, and for more money to be spent on infrastructure to support fishing, especially for the elderly and disabled.

The NSW Greens are campaigning on a plan to lift the amount of protected land in the state from its current 9.6 per cent to 30 per cent. In terms of water, it wants to lift the amount of coastline protected from 7.0 per cent to 30 per cent, including a marine park in Sydney Harbour.

It is openly critical of the state government’s removal of protections in some sanctuary zones to allow fishing.

The Greens say they will work with First Nations communities on joint management plans “to ensure that the protected area network aligns with principles of self-determination to the benefit of country and community”.

A good policy, though, is a plan to restore the health of the Murray Darling Basin by basing environmental water allocations on science rather than commercial needs.

The NSW Greens have three members in the lower house, and three in the senate.

Similar to the Greens, the Animal Justice Party would like to see the size of marine parks in NSW expand, and specifically the 16 – including Sydney Harbour – that were proposed ahead of the previous state election.

These marine parks would all be under a blanket ‘no-take’ policy, meaning they would all be closed off to recreational fishing, helping them to increase the natural biodiversity of the sites.

The AJP has two members in the lower house: Emma Hurst and Mark Pearson.

The NSW state election takes place on Saturday, March 25, 2023.