The Australian Government made two major announcements today relating to the $220 million Securing our Fishing Future package. The announcements include more information on the options available to help fishermen during the transition to sustainably managed fisheries, a formal direction issued to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and proposals for the creation of an extensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the oceans off south-eastern Australia.

The announcements are provided below for the information of Commonwealth fishing licence holders. AFMA is considering the Australian Government’s direction and will outline its response shortly.

Securing our Fishing Future – Statement by Australian Fisheries Minister Senator Ian Macdonald

Australian Fisheries and Conservation Minister Senator Ian Macdonald has released further details of the future operating environment for the Commonwealth fishing industry as part of the $220 million Securing our Fishing Future package, as well as more information on the options available to help fishermen during the transition to sustainably managed fisheries.

On 14 December 2005, Senator Macdonald issued a formal direction to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) to implement a range of measures to address overfishing and to prevent overfishing in the future.

“It is critical that decisive action is taken to ensure the sustainability of Commonwealth fish stocks and to secure the fishing industry’s future” he said. “By issuing a direction to AFMA, the Australian Government has made it very clear that it wishes AFMA to accelerate its current programmes to prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, and to take a more strategic approach to setting catch limits in future.”

“The Government is also concerned that in many sectors of the fishing industry, there are too many boats chasing too few fish. This is why the Australian Government has stepped in to provide a $220m one-off assistance package to reduce the number of fishermen competing for the resource.”

The future operating environment for Commonwealth-managed fisheries will centre on sustainable resource management and maximising the opportunity for fishing businesses to be profitable. The Government’s direction to AFMA contains a number of actions to this end, including:

• adoption of world’s best practice Harvest Strategies for all Commonwealth managed fisheries to ensure a more strategic, science-based approach to setting total allowable catch levels;

• adoption of output controls in the form of individual transferable quotas in all Commonwealth fisheries, unless strong reasons exist otherwise;

• establishment of a system of independent surveys to increase the transparency and integrity of catch and effort information; and

• enhanced monitoring of fishing activity, for example through the use of observers and, increasingly, electronic means (such as vessel monitoring systems and on-board cameras).

AFMA has indicated that it will respond quickly to the direction and will shortly outline a number of changes that will need to be made across the Commonwealth fisheries, particularly for those fisheries currently overfished or subject to overfishing.

A further change to the fishing environment in the South East marine region will be the creation of an extensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Draft plans for the proposed MPAs were released today by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator the Hon Ian Campbell. The proposed MPAs will be out for public consultation during January and February 2006, finalised in March 2006, and formally declared by the end of 2006. Commonwealth and State fishermen that are impacted by the MPAs will also be eligible to apply for business exit assistance.

“It is important that fishermen have as complete a picture as possible of the future operating environment for Commonwealth fisheries so that they can make a balanced decision on whether to stay in the industry or apply to the Government’s $150m fishing concession buyout. The message from the Australian Government is clear: overfishing in Commonwealth fisheries is unacceptable and if you think you can’t operate in that environment, you should consider applying for the buyout.” Senator Macdonald said. “There will not be any further assistance of this kind.”

“Since announcing the Securing our Fishing Future package three weeks ago, my Department and I have been meeting industry and State representatives to further develop its implementation arrangements.”

A call for tenders in the business exit assistance (fishing concession buyout) will be released in late January 2006 and will be open for 10 weeks to allow individual businesses to consider whether they will submit a tender to exit the industry. All eligible current Commonwealth fishing concession holders will receive a copy of the tender documentation by mail.

Following the call for tenders, a series of port meetings will be held in February 2006 to explain the tender process and address queries. During this period, businesses considering whether or not to participate in the buyback may access up to $1,500 to seek professional financial planning advice to help consider their business prospects.

As announced previously, the target fisheries for the buyout are the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery, the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery, and the Bass Strait Central Zone Scallop Fishery. Commonwealth fisheries other than these three, and with the exception of internationally managed fisheries (such as Southern Bluefin Tuna) and joint authority fisheries, will also be eligible to apply for the concession buyout. However, these non-target fisheries will be a lower priority in the tender process.

Funding has also been made available to assist the Northern Prawn Fishery with a transition to output controls should the industry choose to do so. The timing of any assistance in the Northern Prawn Fishery may vary from other fisheries.

Given that the geographic spread of impacts from the fisheries buyouts will not be clear until mid-2006, the proposals for the onshore assistance elements of the package of up to $50 million will not be called until May 2006 at the earliest. There will be three elements to the onshore assistance:

• Business restructuring grants, where directly related businesses such as fish processors and marine engineers can demonstrate that their turnover has been, or will be, directly and significantly impacted as a result of reduced fishing activity associated with the package;

• Grants of $5000 and $3000 each will be paid to skippers and crew respectively who lose employment due to the fishing reductions to help offset the costs of job seeking, retraining and/or relocation; and

• Up to $20 million will be available for the fishing communities grants programme to work with local business partners to fund projects capable of generating local economic activity and opportunities in communities that have been affected by the reduction in fishing activity.

All elements of the assistance package (both onshore and offshore) are being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF). The DAFF hotline for enquiries is (02) 6272 5363. Queries may also be directed to the following email address fisheries@daff.gov.au.

Details of the Minister’s direction to AFMA is available at http://www.mffc.gov.au/releases/2005/05248m.html.

Marine initiatives to sustain environment and industry - Statement by Australian Fisheries Minister Senator Ian Macdonald and Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage Senator Ian Campbell

The Australian Government today released detailed proposals for the creation of an extensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the oceans off south-eastern Australia that again confirms Australia as a world leader in marine environment conservation.

Development of the South-east MPA network is being integrated with the Securing our Fishing Future package jointly announced by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Senator Ian Macdonald, and the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell.

The 14 candidate MPAs cover more than 170,000 square kilometres of Commonwealth waters off Tasmania, Victoria, southern New South Wales and eastern South Australia. The boundaries and zoning of these MPAs announced today will now be subject to consultations in January and February, then finalised in March 2006.

Senator Campbell said the launch of the network followed extensive scientific research and consultations over a number of years, including with the commercial fishing industry, the oil and gas industry and the conservation movement.

“Science tells us this is a remarkable region in environmental terms, with about 80 per cent of species in this region found nowhere else on the planet and these MPAs will protect representative samples of the ecosystems in which these creatures live,” Senator Campbell said.

He said 40% of the proposed network would be highly protected, with another 40% protected in areas where no commercial fishing will be allowed.

The Government also today announced further details of the major fisheries management reforms being implemented as part of the $220 million Securing our Fishing Future package to ensure the sustainability of Commonwealth managed fisheries and to secure the fishing industry’s future.

Senator Macdonald said he had directed the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to implement a range of new measures to address overfishing and to prevent overfishing in future.

“The Government has made it clear that it wants an acceleration of plans for the prevention of overfishing, the rebuilding of fish stocks and management of the environmental impacts of fishing,” Senator Macdonald said.

Senator Macdonald said the moves were necessary following significant concerns within Government and the industry about the poor state of Commonwealth fish stocks and the future sustainability and profitability of the industry.

The Ministers said it was essential that the details of both the proposed MPA network and the new fisheries management regime were available to fishermen so they had the full picture of their future operating environment.

“Having this information at their disposal will enable fishermen to make informed decisions about whether they want to continue in the fishing industry or take advantage of the Australian Government’s generous adjustment package to exit the industry through the concession buy-out.”

The Ministers said combining the adjustment processes for improved fisheries management and MPAs would provide greater certainty for fishermen by ensuring industry was subject to one adjustment process, not two.

For more information please visit www.deh.gov.au/coasts/mpa/southeast/index.html.