Latest news with #Albanese
7NEWS
30 minutes ago
- Business
- 7NEWS
'Unjustified': Donald Trump's tariff hike risks damaging Aussie steel
Australia risks becoming a dumping ground for cheap steel as pressure mounts for the prime minister to meet with Donald Trump following his 'unjustified' doubling of tariffs on steel imports. Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to 'further secure the steel industry in the United States'. The decision could impact 100,000 Australian jobs, with the sector exporting more than $414 million worth of products to the US in 2024. Its peak body says it will continue to work with the federal government to push for an exemption from the Trump administration. 'The subsequent disruptions to global steel trade could see Australia become a dumping ground for imported steel,' Australian Steel Institute chief executive Mark Cain said. 'And it could exacerbate the surge in imported low-priced steel that is damaging the industry.' Trade Minister Don Farrell said the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. 'They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade,' he said on Saturday. 'We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs.' Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs. The Coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement, he added. 'The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers,' Mr Hogan said in a statement. 'This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries.' Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs, like it did after nine months of lobbying in the first Trump administration. The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs.
The Advertiser
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
'Unjustified': PM-Trump talks push after tariff hike
Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs. Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs. Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs. Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs.
West Australian
3 hours ago
- Business
- West Australian
'Unjustified': PM-Trump talks push after tariff hike
Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs.
Perth Now
3 hours ago
- Business
- Perth Now
'Unjustified': PM-Trump talks push after tariff hike
Pressure is again mounting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to personally meet with Donald Trump amid fresh alarm over the US president's "unjustified" tariff hike on steel imports. Mr Trump on Saturday announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 to 50 per cent to "further secure the steel industry in the United States". The latest decision could impact Australia's industry, which exported more than $414 million worth of iron and steel to the US in 2024. Trade Minister Don Farrell says the tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. "They are an act of economic self-harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade," Mr Farrell said on Saturday. "We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs." Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said the latest move was concerning for Australian jobs and the coalition expected the US to honour its obligations under both nations' free trade agreement. "The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers," he said in a statement. "This is why it is imperative that the Australian prime minister personally meets with President Trump ... to develop a personal rapport with the United States president and protect Australian industries." The US imported 289 product categories in 2024, costing $US147 billion ($A229 billion), with nearly two-thirds of those aluminium and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data from the US International Trade Commission. The 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium were among the earliest implemented following Mr Trump's return to the White House in January and came into effect in March. Australia will continue to push for Mr Trump to drop his tariffs after a US federal court blocked his Liberation Day taxes on imported goods from going into effect. Goods from Australia are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US face 25 per cent tariffs before Mr Trump's latest announcement. The New York-based Court of International Trade found the US president had overstepped his authority by imposing the tariffs. The administration launched an appeal, decrying "unelected judges" should not decide how to address a "national emergency". Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs.
The Advertiser
4 hours ago
- General
- The Advertiser
High sea hopes for treaty to preserve vast underwater
Between Australia and New Zealand sits a chain of underwater volcanoes that are home to an abundance of fish, ancient corals and other marine life. Known as Lord Howe Rise, the vast underwater landscape largely exists outside state maritime boundaries, beneath the high seas. That makes the ecologically-rich habitat fair game for industrial fishing, including long-lining and bottom-trawling techniques in the spotlight following the latest instalment from acclaimed nature documentarian David Attenborough. Footage in Ocean powerfully reveals to viewers for the first time, trawlers dragging heavy nets across the sea bed in an indiscriminate search for just a few prized species. As well as scooping up vast volumes of bycatch, such trawling has been found to churn up carbon that would have otherwise stayed locked in place on the sea floor, some of which ends up in the atmosphere to fuel climate change. The documentary lands ahead of a major United Nations ocean conference in France in June. Conservation groups are hopeful the film will help garner support for a landmark treaty to better protect the roughly two-thirds of marine habitat outside the boundaries of individual countries. The high seas biodiversity agreement would lay the foundations to safeguard 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030 in marine sanctuaries, helping preserve threatened species and support fish stocks for communities reliant on the food source. Australia was a founding signatory to the agreement in 2023 and the re-elected Albanese government has promised to ratify its commitment "as quickly as possible", according to thee Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. "Australia is one of a small number of countries that requires implementing legislation to be in place before the treaty can be ratified," a spokesperson says. A multi-agency government delegation still being finalised is set to attend to conference in France. To bring the treaty into force, 60 countries need to enshrine the treaty in national law via ratification. So far, about 40 have either done so or signalled that they will. WWF-Australia head of oceans and sustainable development Richard Leck is confident the treaty will come into force. "But it means countries like Australia, who have indicated they support the treaty, really need to step up to their parliamentary processes and make sure that that actually gets through their systems," he says. Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior oceans campaigner Georgia Whittaker says marine animals are being "pushed closer to the brink of extinction" every day that passes without stronger protections. Fresh analysis of fisheries data from the environmental campaigners reveals damage caused by industrial longline fishing - long stretches of baited hooks - to shark populations. Almost half a million near-threatened blue sharks were taken as bycatch in the the central and western Pacific in 2023, the highest number ever recorded and double 2015 numbers. Greenpeace has been angling for a marine sanctuary in the Lord Howe Rise and Tasman Sea region in anticipation of the oceans treaty going ahead. Marine scientist and Research Connect Blue director Rachel Przeslawski says there is still much to learn about the diverse underwater tracts off Australia's east coast. The mighty chain of seamounts - underwater mountains - experience an inverse relationship to biodiversity to that of their on-land cousins. Life is most abundant higher on the peaks, where there's more sunlight and nutrients, with visiting humpback whales and other migratory species among the creatures found in their midst. The deeper waters of the surrounding abyssal plains tend to host sparser populations of "weird critters" that have adapted to dark, nutrient-poor and hostile conditions. Some seamounts are as shallow as 200m and a few breach the surface, Lord Howe Island and Middleton and Elizabeth reefs among them. Australian trawlers are no longer active in the area but vessels from other countries are causing damage, Dr Przeslawski tells AAP, with sea beds taking years or even decades to recover. She says any marine sanctuaries devised under a high seas agreement would ideally be completely no-take. Many existing marine parks are only partially protected, with permitted sections to be fished or mined. "Is it going to be toothless?" Dr Przeslawski asks. "Or will it actually have some bite and the ability to affect some of these really ecologically damaging activities?" Between Australia and New Zealand sits a chain of underwater volcanoes that are home to an abundance of fish, ancient corals and other marine life. Known as Lord Howe Rise, the vast underwater landscape largely exists outside state maritime boundaries, beneath the high seas. That makes the ecologically-rich habitat fair game for industrial fishing, including long-lining and bottom-trawling techniques in the spotlight following the latest instalment from acclaimed nature documentarian David Attenborough. Footage in Ocean powerfully reveals to viewers for the first time, trawlers dragging heavy nets across the sea bed in an indiscriminate search for just a few prized species. As well as scooping up vast volumes of bycatch, such trawling has been found to churn up carbon that would have otherwise stayed locked in place on the sea floor, some of which ends up in the atmosphere to fuel climate change. The documentary lands ahead of a major United Nations ocean conference in France in June. Conservation groups are hopeful the film will help garner support for a landmark treaty to better protect the roughly two-thirds of marine habitat outside the boundaries of individual countries. The high seas biodiversity agreement would lay the foundations to safeguard 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030 in marine sanctuaries, helping preserve threatened species and support fish stocks for communities reliant on the food source. Australia was a founding signatory to the agreement in 2023 and the re-elected Albanese government has promised to ratify its commitment "as quickly as possible", according to thee Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. "Australia is one of a small number of countries that requires implementing legislation to be in place before the treaty can be ratified," a spokesperson says. A multi-agency government delegation still being finalised is set to attend to conference in France. To bring the treaty into force, 60 countries need to enshrine the treaty in national law via ratification. So far, about 40 have either done so or signalled that they will. WWF-Australia head of oceans and sustainable development Richard Leck is confident the treaty will come into force. "But it means countries like Australia, who have indicated they support the treaty, really need to step up to their parliamentary processes and make sure that that actually gets through their systems," he says. Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior oceans campaigner Georgia Whittaker says marine animals are being "pushed closer to the brink of extinction" every day that passes without stronger protections. Fresh analysis of fisheries data from the environmental campaigners reveals damage caused by industrial longline fishing - long stretches of baited hooks - to shark populations. Almost half a million near-threatened blue sharks were taken as bycatch in the the central and western Pacific in 2023, the highest number ever recorded and double 2015 numbers. Greenpeace has been angling for a marine sanctuary in the Lord Howe Rise and Tasman Sea region in anticipation of the oceans treaty going ahead. Marine scientist and Research Connect Blue director Rachel Przeslawski says there is still much to learn about the diverse underwater tracts off Australia's east coast. The mighty chain of seamounts - underwater mountains - experience an inverse relationship to biodiversity to that of their on-land cousins. Life is most abundant higher on the peaks, where there's more sunlight and nutrients, with visiting humpback whales and other migratory species among the creatures found in their midst. The deeper waters of the surrounding abyssal plains tend to host sparser populations of "weird critters" that have adapted to dark, nutrient-poor and hostile conditions. Some seamounts are as shallow as 200m and a few breach the surface, Lord Howe Island and Middleton and Elizabeth reefs among them. Australian trawlers are no longer active in the area but vessels from other countries are causing damage, Dr Przeslawski tells AAP, with sea beds taking years or even decades to recover. She says any marine sanctuaries devised under a high seas agreement would ideally be completely no-take. Many existing marine parks are only partially protected, with permitted sections to be fished or mined. "Is it going to be toothless?" Dr Przeslawski asks. "Or will it actually have some bite and the ability to affect some of these really ecologically damaging activities?" Between Australia and New Zealand sits a chain of underwater volcanoes that are home to an abundance of fish, ancient corals and other marine life. Known as Lord Howe Rise, the vast underwater landscape largely exists outside state maritime boundaries, beneath the high seas. That makes the ecologically-rich habitat fair game for industrial fishing, including long-lining and bottom-trawling techniques in the spotlight following the latest instalment from acclaimed nature documentarian David Attenborough. Footage in Ocean powerfully reveals to viewers for the first time, trawlers dragging heavy nets across the sea bed in an indiscriminate search for just a few prized species. As well as scooping up vast volumes of bycatch, such trawling has been found to churn up carbon that would have otherwise stayed locked in place on the sea floor, some of which ends up in the atmosphere to fuel climate change. The documentary lands ahead of a major United Nations ocean conference in France in June. Conservation groups are hopeful the film will help garner support for a landmark treaty to better protect the roughly two-thirds of marine habitat outside the boundaries of individual countries. The high seas biodiversity agreement would lay the foundations to safeguard 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030 in marine sanctuaries, helping preserve threatened species and support fish stocks for communities reliant on the food source. Australia was a founding signatory to the agreement in 2023 and the re-elected Albanese government has promised to ratify its commitment "as quickly as possible", according to thee Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. "Australia is one of a small number of countries that requires implementing legislation to be in place before the treaty can be ratified," a spokesperson says. A multi-agency government delegation still being finalised is set to attend to conference in France. To bring the treaty into force, 60 countries need to enshrine the treaty in national law via ratification. So far, about 40 have either done so or signalled that they will. WWF-Australia head of oceans and sustainable development Richard Leck is confident the treaty will come into force. "But it means countries like Australia, who have indicated they support the treaty, really need to step up to their parliamentary processes and make sure that that actually gets through their systems," he says. Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior oceans campaigner Georgia Whittaker says marine animals are being "pushed closer to the brink of extinction" every day that passes without stronger protections. Fresh analysis of fisheries data from the environmental campaigners reveals damage caused by industrial longline fishing - long stretches of baited hooks - to shark populations. Almost half a million near-threatened blue sharks were taken as bycatch in the the central and western Pacific in 2023, the highest number ever recorded and double 2015 numbers. Greenpeace has been angling for a marine sanctuary in the Lord Howe Rise and Tasman Sea region in anticipation of the oceans treaty going ahead. Marine scientist and Research Connect Blue director Rachel Przeslawski says there is still much to learn about the diverse underwater tracts off Australia's east coast. The mighty chain of seamounts - underwater mountains - experience an inverse relationship to biodiversity to that of their on-land cousins. Life is most abundant higher on the peaks, where there's more sunlight and nutrients, with visiting humpback whales and other migratory species among the creatures found in their midst. The deeper waters of the surrounding abyssal plains tend to host sparser populations of "weird critters" that have adapted to dark, nutrient-poor and hostile conditions. Some seamounts are as shallow as 200m and a few breach the surface, Lord Howe Island and Middleton and Elizabeth reefs among them. Australian trawlers are no longer active in the area but vessels from other countries are causing damage, Dr Przeslawski tells AAP, with sea beds taking years or even decades to recover. She says any marine sanctuaries devised under a high seas agreement would ideally be completely no-take. Many existing marine parks are only partially protected, with permitted sections to be fished or mined. "Is it going to be toothless?" Dr Przeslawski asks. "Or will it actually have some bite and the ability to affect some of these really ecologically damaging activities?" Between Australia and New Zealand sits a chain of underwater volcanoes that are home to an abundance of fish, ancient corals and other marine life. Known as Lord Howe Rise, the vast underwater landscape largely exists outside state maritime boundaries, beneath the high seas. That makes the ecologically-rich habitat fair game for industrial fishing, including long-lining and bottom-trawling techniques in the spotlight following the latest instalment from acclaimed nature documentarian David Attenborough. Footage in Ocean powerfully reveals to viewers for the first time, trawlers dragging heavy nets across the sea bed in an indiscriminate search for just a few prized species. As well as scooping up vast volumes of bycatch, such trawling has been found to churn up carbon that would have otherwise stayed locked in place on the sea floor, some of which ends up in the atmosphere to fuel climate change. The documentary lands ahead of a major United Nations ocean conference in France in June. Conservation groups are hopeful the film will help garner support for a landmark treaty to better protect the roughly two-thirds of marine habitat outside the boundaries of individual countries. The high seas biodiversity agreement would lay the foundations to safeguard 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030 in marine sanctuaries, helping preserve threatened species and support fish stocks for communities reliant on the food source. Australia was a founding signatory to the agreement in 2023 and the re-elected Albanese government has promised to ratify its commitment "as quickly as possible", according to thee Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. "Australia is one of a small number of countries that requires implementing legislation to be in place before the treaty can be ratified," a spokesperson says. A multi-agency government delegation still being finalised is set to attend to conference in France. To bring the treaty into force, 60 countries need to enshrine the treaty in national law via ratification. So far, about 40 have either done so or signalled that they will. WWF-Australia head of oceans and sustainable development Richard Leck is confident the treaty will come into force. "But it means countries like Australia, who have indicated they support the treaty, really need to step up to their parliamentary processes and make sure that that actually gets through their systems," he says. Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior oceans campaigner Georgia Whittaker says marine animals are being "pushed closer to the brink of extinction" every day that passes without stronger protections. Fresh analysis of fisheries data from the environmental campaigners reveals damage caused by industrial longline fishing - long stretches of baited hooks - to shark populations. Almost half a million near-threatened blue sharks were taken as bycatch in the the central and western Pacific in 2023, the highest number ever recorded and double 2015 numbers. Greenpeace has been angling for a marine sanctuary in the Lord Howe Rise and Tasman Sea region in anticipation of the oceans treaty going ahead. Marine scientist and Research Connect Blue director Rachel Przeslawski says there is still much to learn about the diverse underwater tracts off Australia's east coast. The mighty chain of seamounts - underwater mountains - experience an inverse relationship to biodiversity to that of their on-land cousins. Life is most abundant higher on the peaks, where there's more sunlight and nutrients, with visiting humpback whales and other migratory species among the creatures found in their midst. The deeper waters of the surrounding abyssal plains tend to host sparser populations of "weird critters" that have adapted to dark, nutrient-poor and hostile conditions. Some seamounts are as shallow as 200m and a few breach the surface, Lord Howe Island and Middleton and Elizabeth reefs among them. Australian trawlers are no longer active in the area but vessels from other countries are causing damage, Dr Przeslawski tells AAP, with sea beds taking years or even decades to recover. She says any marine sanctuaries devised under a high seas agreement would ideally be completely no-take. Many existing marine parks are only partially protected, with permitted sections to be fished or mined. "Is it going to be toothless?" Dr Przeslawski asks. "Or will it actually have some bite and the ability to affect some of these really ecologically damaging activities?"
