Thursday, 29 August 2024

Fishing industry

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:13): (1112) My adjournment is for the Minister for Environment and Minister for Outdoor Recreation, and the action I seek is the urgent review and reversal of the recent decision to dissolve individual transferable quotas, or ITQs, for black sea urchins. ITQs are attached to fishing licences, which are transferable and therefore a tradable asset like a property right. One owner recently paid more than $250,000 for his licence, which has now been significantly devalued. On 1 July 2024 the Government Gazette outlined quota orders for the next 12 months. It did not include black sea urchins, effectively deregulating black sea urchin fishing by requiring no daily catch limit. Sea urchin fishing season is already limited to around 48 days of the year, and the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s decision has dealt a severe financial blow to the livelihood of all sea urchin divers and, more broadly, to the already shrinking fishing industry, especially in the Gippsland Lakes district, which is made up of small, often generational, fishing families that are highly income dependent on commercial fishing. This decision has caused a lack of certainty and confidence in the rule of law and property rights as this government has shown it can extinguish them overnight. It also means that the industry is more exposed to illegal fishing and organised crime, as abalone is a commodity that is highly sought after in Asia and our precious waters have less legitimate commercial fishers to compete with and less government oversight. With the near death of the energy sector, forestry and the fishing industry in regional towns this government is reducing my constituents to serving coffees to tourists. In the absence of genuine consultation with the affected fishing industry stakeholders, I ask that the decision be reversed immediately.