Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

The Fisheries Legislation Amendment (Cooperative Fisheries Arrangements and Other Matters) Bill 2005 [2006] makes a number of amendments to the Fisheries Management Act 1991 and the Fisheries Administration Act 1991. These amendments include clarifying the meaning of the existing economic efficiency objective and inserting an ecologically sustainable development principle consistent with the ecologically sustainable development principle contained in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The bill also provides for the amendment of fisheries agreements made under the offshore constitutional settlement. These measures have the support of the state and territory governments and, importantly, the fisheries industry. In part, this legislation gives effect to recommendations of the 2003 Commonwealth fisheries policy review and to work done by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council. The provisions of this bill are broadly consistent with longstanding Labor policy aimed at ensuring the sustainability of our fisheries and the maritime environment and the efficient management of fisheries resources through cooperation across federal, state and territory jurisdictions. Labor supports the passage of this bill.

There has been concern for some time among commercial fishers about the meaning of the ‘economic efficiency principle’ in Commonwealth fisheries legislation. Current legislation requires the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to pursue the objective of ‘maximising economic efficiency in the exploitation of fisheries resources’. This has lead to some confusion and, I understand, a number of court cases. Some commercial fishers have read the objective as requiring AFMA to maximise returns to the fishing industry rather than to maximise net returns to the whole Australian community, as was originally intended. The objective has been reworded in this piece of legislation to ‘maximising the net economic returns to the Australian community from the management of Australian fisheries’. This is a sensible amendment that should clarify the points of confusion.

Outcome 3 of the 2003 fisheries review found that, while current Commonwealth fisheries legislation requires that fisheries are managed in a way that is consistent with the principles of environmentally sustainable development, there is some confusion as to how this objective should be interpreted. This concern is addressed in this bill by including ESD principles consistent with those contained in the EPBC Act. In its management of Commonwealth fisheries, AFMA will be now required to attempt to balance the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social outcomes for fisheries.

The offshore constitutional settlement is the jurisdictional arrangement between the Commonwealth and the states and territories which sets out responsibilities for offshore fisheries, among other matters. It provides for state and territory laws to apply inside three nautical miles and for Commonwealth laws to apply from three to 200 nautical miles. The 2003 Commonwealth fisheries policy review highlighted a number of concerns with the operation of fisheries agreements under the OCS. In particular, there is currently no provision for the amendment of fisheries agreements. This bill will allow for the amendment of fisheries agreements without having to terminate the original instrument and create an entirely new instrument.

The bill will also allow for the management of multijurisdictional fisheries under the laws of a state or territory where appropriate. It is hoped that this heralds a more cooperative approach in the future, where the states, territories and the Commonwealth involved in a regional fishery will sit down and jointly decide who will have legal jurisdiction in that fishery. In the recent past, and especially under the two previous fisheries ministers, it has been clear that the Commonwealth has not been following a cooperative approach in the management of fisheries. Rather than cooperate with the states and territories over such important issues as illegal foreign fishing, previous federal ministers have preferred to bicker and blame. They have taken a high-handed approach in their dealings with the states and territories, and with the fishing community, and have failed to make the most of the limited resources available for dealing with illegal fishing. One of the minister’s predecessors went so far as to threaten to physically deal with a fisherman who disagreed with his views at a port meeting. We will see if Senator Abetz can do any better. This bill largely deals with improving mechanisms for cooperation between all jurisdictions in the management of our fisheries. I urge the new minister to abandon the confrontational practices of his predecessors and to work cooperatively with the states and territories, and the fishing industry, in the interests of the long-term future of this important industry.

I note that today the media reports a further incursion into Australian waters in the Northern Territory:

The crew of a foreign fishing vessel found in a creek near Maningrida on the Northern Territory’s north coast has fled. The boat was spotted—

not by the Commonwealth—

by Aboriginal sea rangers in an aerial surveillance plane two days ago. A report was made to Customs. But the crew has now left Australian waters.

I think that is an area where we can improve, but we support this bill and commend it to the Senate.