The push for an upper house inquiry has been led by Labor’s Primary Industries spokesman, Mick Veitch, who visited the region this week. Mr Veitch met with about 10 fishers at Berkeley on Monday.

One of them was Mark Moane, who has fished Lake Illawarra for 35 years – following in his father’s footsteps. 

“It’s more than a job, it’s part of my history,” Mr Moane said. 

The fisherman backed the inquiry push, saying the reforms going ahead would eventually spell “the end of commercial fishing in NSW”.

“We’ve got no option but to go down that track, because they [the government] won’t listen to us and they just keep pushing the reform through,” he said. 

Mr Veitch said a parliamentary inquiry would “get to the bottom of the restructure process, allow industry and other stakeholders to have a say, and try to answer questions the government simply refuses to answer”.

The government has flagged the introduction of minimum shareholding as part of its commercial fisheries business adjustment program, meaning fishers must hold a certain number of shares to be endorsed to fish.

Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair’s office was contacted for comment.