Primary industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson was heckled from the public gallery in State Parliament today when she defended the decision to close the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre.
Centre staff and supporters attended Question Time after an earlier protest rally.
Speaker Shelley Hancock warned they would be ejected if they interjected.
Ms Hodgkinson said the closure of the research facility would have far-reaching benefits for the state’s regional communities.
‘‘These are towns that those opposite robbed of opportunity for 16 years to make sure that they were within stone’s throw of their bureaucrats while the public were miles from the department that delivered their key services,’’ she said.
‘‘We are decentralising our staff at Cronulla to locations that the ‘Champagne Charlies’ opposite have only seen on postcards.
‘‘More to the point, the employees at Cronulla have had ample opportunity to voice their concerns to me.’’
Ms Hodgkinson said, during an 80 minute meeting with three staff members, she had made it clear there would be no wavering on the decision.
She was not interested in taking the centre’s hard-working staff on ‘‘a wild goose chase’’.
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