John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Fisheries Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2010. The coalition recognise the important role that fishing plays in hundreds of coastal and river communities, and in bringing enjoyment to millions of Australians as well as to the national economy. The commercial fishing sector has a value of more than $2.1 billion, making it Australia’s sixth largest primary producing sector. In addition, it is estimated that 3½ million Australians participate in recreational fishing, spending over $3 billion each year on charter hire fishing, boating equipment, travel accommodation and bait.

The coalition are keeping a close eye on the fisheries portfolio, as we are concerned that Labor continues to threaten the sector with massive new no-take marine parks around Australia and has allowed fringe environmental groups to unilaterally influence policy on this matter. The fear of no-take zones has caused great uncertainty for businesses both directly and indirectly reliant on access to fishing resources, be they commercial or recreational. This bill, however, will provide small and practical measures to improve fisheries management.

The bill will amend the Fisheries Management Act 1991, the Fisheries Administration Act 1991 and the Fishing Levy Act 1991 to enable greater efficiency, cost-effectiveness and more suitable fisheries for the fishing industry. The bill amends these acts to achieve four outcomes. Firstly, it facilitates co-management arrangements with various stakeholders. To enable the co-management arrangements to be fully implemented, the amendments will provide the Australian Fisheries Management Authority with the capacity to delegate powers and functions under the Fisheries Management Act to primary stakeholders in a fishery in which there is a co-management arrangement. The exercise of those functions and powers by delegates will still be subject to the directions of the AFMA Chief Executive Officer. The CEO will have the power to revoke a delegation. The power to delegate to primary stakeholders will also be subject to other requirements of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Appropriately enough, some powers and functions will be delegated to primary stakeholders, but AFMA will still have oversight capabilities to ensure governance and sustainability requirements under the Commonwealth fisheries harvest strategy policy, and reporting under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Secondly, this bill simplifies the regulatory regime administered by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority by enabling the regulations to prescribe common conditions that apply to the holders of fishing concessions across different fisheries and by simplifying the requirements for amending fisheries plans of management to remove conditions that have been prescribed by the regulations or which are otherwise redundant, thereby removing unnecessary costs that are passed on to the holders of fishing concessions.

These changes remove the requirement that a plan of management for a fishery contains measures that duplicate administrative processes, in particular with regard to reporting and accountability; consolidate the power in the Fisheries Management Act to direct the closure or partial closure of a fishery; and simplify the procedures for making minor amendments to fisheries management plans, such as the correction of errors or changes in format. These are probably some of the bigger issues that are dealt with by the changes.

The bill will also simplify the consultation process for amending a plan of management, particularly for minor amendments. In cases where an amendment is more than a minor modification of a plan of management, as a minimum consultation with the management advisory committee and the peak industry body representing holders of fishing concessions will be required.

Thirdly, the bill rationalises management advisory committees, or MACs, by removing the restriction in subsection 56(4) of the FA Act on abolishing a MAC that is provided for in a fishery management plan. Under the existing legislation, AFMA can abolish a MAC that is provided for in a plan, but only by amending the particular plan. This would be a more costly process, particularly where amendments are required to a number of plans. The amendment will therefore allow AFMA to complete restructure of the MACs. I understand industry and MAC members participated in and were supportive of the decision to reduce the MAC structure from 12 to six. I also understand that this decision was considered by all parties to be appropriate to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of advice to AFMA, with the added benefit of lowering the fisheries administrative costs borne by industry.

Fourthly, and finally, this bill will allow AFMA to provide its services to other agencies. The bill will allow AFMA to make its expertise in fisheries management available to Commonwealth, state, territory or overseas agencies by, for example, making trained fisheries observers available to state or territory fisheries management agencies or by sharing its technical expertise in the installation and use of vessel monitoring systems. This amendment will also allow AFMA to charge Commonwealth and state agencies for the provision of services under the existing section 94 of the FA Act.

To sum up, the co-management arrangements and MAC amendments will enable the industry to be given a more prominent and direct role in the management of fisheries and will improve the effectiveness of management advisory committees. The bill will enhance AFMA’s ability to achieve efficient, cost-effective and sustainable fisheries management and to thereby meet its objectives under the FA Act by facilitating the implementation of co-management with various stakeholders in Commonwealth fisheries. I believe this bill does provide small and common sense changes to improve fisheries management. The bill is supported by the Commonwealth Fisheries Association. I will be monitoring this amendment bill, if passed, to ensure that the government delivers a reduction in the costs to industry that are proposed by these changes.

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