Conservation & Climate

Is best practice science actually best practice? As Australian fisheries contract under increasingly precautionary policy, seafood imports continue to rise. This article examines whether domestic closures are strengthening sustainability or simply shifting environmental pressure offshore.

Australia is winding back domestic coal-fired power while sending ever more coal offshore. That energy hypocrisy leaves families paying more, undermines the middle class, and mirrors what is happening in seafood, where we constrain well-managed local harvests yet lean on imports of variable quality. Domestic coal use is falling Coal’s share of our electricity fell from about 54% in 2020 to about 45% in 2024. Over the same period total generation grew, which means coal generat

Government climate policies claim to protect the planet, but in reality they are pushing Australia’s working fishers out of existence. “Net zero fishers” is becoming the true outcome of net zero emissions.

Offshore wind farms NSW have been cancelled or paused, a decision welcomed by commercial fishers. Projects off Newcastle and the Illawarra threatened fishing grounds, seafood supply, and left no clear plan for clean-up once turbines became inoperable. For fishers and seafood lovers, this is good news: the waters remain open, local supply chains are protected, and the ocean won’t become a dumping ground for abandoned industrial infrastructure.