NSW Fisheries Officers have taken industrial action and are refusing to inspect commercial trawlers at night over safety concerns after several alleged violent incidents where they have been shot at, threatened with knives and baseball bats and had cars driven at them.

The Public Service Association PSA which represents NSW Fisheries Officers said they are avoiding certain areas and individuals at the very time fears have emerged that crooks, poachers and organised criminals like outlaw bikie gangs have taken over the state’s rivers, oceans and estuaries and are now plundering valuable species like abalone and rock lobster.

Now the NSW Fisheries Officers are demanding that they be issued with stab proof vests and capsicum spray for their protection and defence.

The Department of Primary Industries, which employs Fisheries Officers, attempted to force them back into dangerous night work earlier this week by applying to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission but the Commission refused to make such an order.

The Officers also want the same powers as Fisheries Officers in other states to check boat and car registrations, conduct surveillance, undertake investigations, and real time GPS tracking of the entire commercial fishing fleet.

They also want to see the introduction of a ‘fit and proper person’ test for commercial fishing licence holders and their crew within six months.

A Fisheries Officer is going to get killed if the NSW Government doesn’t take action says Troy Wright the Assistant General Secretary of The Public Service Association which represents Fisheries Officers.

“Fisheries Officers are being shot at, run down, having fishing knives pulled on them, someone’s going to get killed,” he said.

“Fisheries Officers have no way of knowing if a boat or car we inspect is going to be filled with bikies from outlaw motorcycle gangs, they’re blind compared to Fisheries Officers in other states.”

This article appeared in the  Clarence Valley Independent, 9 October 2024.