Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the comments of my colleague the member for Lyons. He is well known as a passionate advocate for the fishing industry, a wonderful spokesman and advocate for them. There are few in this building who know or understand more about it. He is truly the fisherman’s friend.

It is very pleasing to be able to sum up now, for this legislation is so important for our industry. The Fisheries Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2010 amends the Fisheries Management Act 1991, the Fisheries Administration Act 1991 and the Fishing Levy Act 1991 to implement more effective, efficient and less costly fisheries management arrangements in four main ways.

The first group of amendments will enable AFMA to implement comanagement arrangements in Commonwealth fisheries. Comanagement arrangements will allow AFMA to share the responsibilities and obligations for sustainable management with the primary stakeholders involved in the fishery. Comanagement will provide more effective outcomes in fisheries management through collaborative industry arrangements with stakeholders. It will also acknowledge that fishers and other key stakeholders should be involved in the management of fisheries leading to better policy and management outcomes.

Madam Deputy Speaker D’Ath, it was my pleasure to see a practical example of this in operation at the state level when I recently visited the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association in Port Lincoln in South Australia, a true model of how these arrangements can work with a responsible association working cooperatively amongst its members, bringing to bear peer group pressure and providing the raw material, the data, and cooperation with the state authorities that allow comanagement to work beautifully because they understand that sustaining the industry is in their own interests. Also, they would like to hand down their businesses to their children. So it is a wonderful example of how this comanagement regime can work and we hope to now migrate that into the Commonwealth sphere.

The second set of amendments relates to the simplification of AFMA’s regulatory processes. AFMA administers a complex regulatory framework that currently contains some duplication and inconsistency across Commonwealth fisheries. This bill will enable AFMA to reduce the complexity of the management rules that apply to each fishery by prescribing standard conditions in the subordinate regulations rather than in individual fishery management plans.

The third area of reform in the bill relates to management advisory committees, or MACs as they are commonly known. The bill will remove the limitation on AFMA to structure the MACs efficiently. The amendment is required to simplify the process for AFMA to reduce the number of MACs and to enable the implementation of a dual advisory model. This will separate the provision of advice to AFMA: MACs will continue to provide advice to AFMA on community interest issues, and advice on fishery operations will be provided by peak industry bodies.

The last group of amendments contained in this bill will allow AFMA to share its expertise and institutional knowledge with Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth agencies. The measures introduced by this bill are a further step in enabling AFMA to implement more efficient and effective fisheries management and to ensure that Australia’s fishing industry remains viable for both this generation and generations to come.

In conclusion, I refer to the comments by the member for Calare in relation to the marine bioregional planning process that is currently underway. It is a shame to see references to that process still continuing—some of the misinformation and scaremongering that occurred during the election campaign—when in reality this process in no way differs from that which applied under the Howard government, which in fact initiated that process. We are engaged in a period now of extensive consultation with the stakeholders in the industry in the furtherance of those conservation measures that may or may not be necessary that will be revealed through the areas for further analysis that have been delineated under that process.

There will be no marine parks created under this further process. There may be marine protected areas created which will relate to management regimes that are revealed by the areas for further analysis, research and observations by the industry. There should be nothing to fear in this process. It in no way differs from the process that applied under the Howard government.

I thank members for their contributions. I look forward to the arrangements and improvements that will be instituted through this legislation. I know it will be greatly welcomed by the fishing industry.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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