Question Time

Marine Scalefish Fishery

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Does the minister's decision to allocate additional quota units in the marine scalefish fishery apply to all licensed marine scalefish fishers who applied for exceptional circumstances and were recognised as having exceptional circumstances by the previous minister or only those who appealed to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for her question. Members will recall that this line of questioning is in regard to the bungle by the former minister for primary industries in terms of allocating a policy that came to be known as the pro-rata policy, which SACAT found had no legal foundation and in fact entrenched disadvantage. In fact, to quote, it 'singled out those fishers unfairly disadvantaged by the general allocation process and effectively sought to enshrine that disadvantage'.

In terms of who will be covered, I can advise that the decision to remedy the appalling errors of the former minister applies to all those with approved exceptional circumstances who were then given a pro-rata share of surrendered licences, and it's not specific to only those who applied at SACAT.