Allocation of Access
In effect any person who meets any required technical requirements is granted access on an equal basis. There are a few exceptions. These are:
jjjjjjjj) persons may be required to be deemed `a fit and proper person' - which, in effect, means that they have not been successfully prosecuted for a wildlife or fishery offence;
kkkkkkkk) some fisheries may be `closed' - that is, the number of entrants is restricted. Holders of current licences retain their entitlements unless relinquished voluntarily or bought out (paid compensation);
llllllll) there is no provision for the tendering of the right of access to natural resources - fees relate to cost recovery, with a premium for greater rights being provided; and
mmmmmmmm) as previously noted, special rights of access may be provided to indigenous people - under the Wildlife Act 197524 the Secretary may give written authorisation to hunt, take, destroy, buy, sell, keep, possess, breed, etc., wildlife if he or she is satisfied that the authorisation is necessary for, inter alia, aboriginal cultural purposes and one of objectives of the Fisheries Act 199525 is the facilitation of Victorian fisheries for "traditional uses", which implies fishing by Aboriginals.
Best Practice
There is legislative provision for the Fisheries Co-Management Council to prepare and distribute codes of practice regarding fishery licence or permit holders in relation to `best practices' concerning any matter relevant to those permits or licences.
One submission to the Inquiry pointed out, in relation to controls on the harvesting of tree ferns from private land that:26
There are no restrictions on cutting heads off the tree ferns in young [pine] plantations, grazing them to death, spraying them with chemicals, [bull]dozing them, burning them or giving them away. The only restriction is on utilising them for the purpose of sale.
Issues
The legislative provision for the consideration of equity issues is highly variable.
