Rebecca Moynihan (Labour)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in. I am not overly familiar with this area and am learning as I go along. I will ask a couple of questions but I ask the witnesses to reply to me in such a way that takes into account the fact that I am a girl from the inner city, not from any of the coastal or fishing communities. I therefore ask, as a preface to my contribution, that the witnesses explain to me in plain English rather than technical language.

How will the marine protected areas be monitored? How does the Department ensure this is not merely a paper designation? What kind of infrastructure and operations will be put in place to monitor these marine protected areas? We are jumping quite significantly from 2.5% to 10% to 30%. What area does that take in? What infrastructure is being put in place such that if 30% of our waters are designated as marine protected areas, it is not like a national development plan in that we put this down on paper and say these are the policies underpinning it but nothing actually happens to make sure this is not simply a paper designation? What impact will marine protected areas and their designation have on fishing rights for coastal communities? Have any conversations or negotiations taken place with our European partners about fishing rights and overfishing within our waters? Is that considered to be commercial activity? Could the witnesses answer the question about overfishing of some of our protected areas?

I will say it again: I ask the witnesses to explain this to me in plain English rather than technical terms.