Green groups say alarm bells should be ringing after comments on a banned super-trawler from new parliamentary secretary for agriculture.
Tasmanian senator Richard Colbeck has said new scientific surveys will be done to determine stocks of the small pelagic fish which were to be caught by the controversial Dutch vessel Margiris.
The work will be done on top of that to be completed by an expert panel put in place when the trawler was banned by the previous federal government for two years.
Senator Colbeck says decisions on whether factory ships will be allowed in Australian waters will be based on science.
Greenpeace oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle welcomed the new surveys but cautioned they should not be rushed.
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"Senator Colbeck's support for new stock surveys should raise the antennas of the Australian public, who so strongly rejected super-trawlers last year," Mr Pelle said in a statement.
Tasmanian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson called on Senator Colbeck to allow the expert panel to complete its report, due in October 2014.
Senator Whish-Wilson said the new government should uphold the ban, even if Margiris operator Seafish Tasmania was successful with a Federal Court challenge to the ban currently underway.
"If the new government's commitment to the expert panel process is genuine, the Greens are happy to work with them to ensure the ban remains in place and the expert panel can finish their work," Senator Whish-Wilson said.
