Question Time

NORTHERN ZONE ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question about the northern zone rock lobster fishery.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In 2007, the Labor government released a management plan for the northern zone rock lobster fishery. On the PIRSA website, there still remains the most recent management plan applicable to the northern zone. The purpose of this plan was to strike the right balance between 'minimising the risk to sustainability objectives and minimising the risk of lost opportunities'. The management plan recommended that:

Improved spatial management will ensure that one region of the fishery is not propping up another region, particularly during periods of low recruitment.

It goes on further to say:

A strategy should be developed in the first two years of the management plan to further refine spatial management within the fishery.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Why was the advice in the plan ignored and spatial management not adopted for the northern zone rock lobster fishery?

2. The South Australian Rock Lobster Advisory Council has also undertaken its own research, which outlines that the current reductions to quotas due to sanctuary zone offsets are not enough and will result in overfishing of the other areas. Is the minister aware of this research and, if so, what does she plan to do about it?

3. Has the minister consulted with the northern zone rock lobster fishers about their fears and what has her response to those fishers been?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for his questions. Indeed, the Fisheries Council of South Australia prepared a draft management plan for the northern zone rock lobster fishery, with the assistance of the Rock Lobster Fisheries Management Advisory Committee. The northern zone rock lobster fishery industry is represented on that advisory committee and certainly has been very much involved in the development of that plan at all stages.

That draft was released for public comment from November 2012 to February 2013 to allow for industry, community and conservation input and the like, and a public meeting was held. The management plan has a number of provisions to allow for review of the plan, including the TACC setting process if characteristics of the fishery change.

The management plan has a term of five years, with the harvest strategy to be reviewed after three years. The harvest strategy, which sets out the TACC setting process, included in the management plan was developed and endorsed by industry, through representatives on the working group, and also the Rock Lobster Steering Committee.

In 2012-13, the TACC for the northern zone rock lobster fishery was determined in September, and that was then extended from November 2012 to 31 May 2013. In terms of questions around consultation, extensive consultation at all levels has been involved. In terms of some of the views about the effects of marine parks and the level of displacement, there have been disagreements around that.

I have met with those rock lobster fishery representatives—and a wide range of others as well—fairly extensively over the last two-year period. I have met with them. The issue has been that their view is that there should be more displaced effort than has been calculated. They have been invited to supply us with detailed information as to what is actually being fished. Our officers have shown them the way that calculations for displaced effort have been made and the principle that that has been based on. As I said, we have worked very closely with industry to determine what is actually happening by industry and we have certainly taken that into consideration.

The northern rock lobster fishery industry has not been able to demonstrate any further information that would warrant the recalculation of the displaced effort, so although they disagree with the level that we have calculated, they are not able to, in fact, provide us with evidence that would indicate that we would need to shift that. Our calculations are based on an average and, if I recall, it is over something like 15 years—or it might be somewhere between 12 to 15 years—of actual take from the fishery averaged over that period of time, so it is over quite a lengthy period of time that we cast our net, so to speak.

This fishery wants us to take a far more conservative level and of course the problem with that is that we could be, in fact, by our calculations, removing fishing licences from the industry that do not need to be removed and that means that people's businesses, family members and community members located in regional areas could be impacted on. We have used the same calculation for this fishery as we have for others. It is based on averages and it is over a long period of time. We believe it is an accurate reflection of the level of displaced effort and, as I said, the northern rock lobster fishery has not been able to provide us with any additional information that would indicate that we need to go back and revise those calculations.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary question, the Hon. Mr Ridgway.