Marine Scalefish Fishery

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:34): Further supplementary: can the minister also outline for us what the lower and upper levels are for licence fees, depending on whether you have a large quota or a small quota?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:34): I'm happy to provide additional information on notice. One other thing I would add is that the department has been working through, with the various fishing sectors, ways overall that management costs can be reduced. This can include things such as initiatives towards more technological solutions for surveillance, for example, and a number of other matters. The department is keen to always be working with stakeholders to look at ways that the overall management costs can be reduced, and that, of course, would then be reflected in changes to fees.

I also would reiterate that this is also covering compliance, and this is also covering research. We need to recall that the aquatic resources are actually a community resource and then licence fees enable individual businesses to be able to access that resource, which is nonetheless a community resource. So we do need to ensure that sustainability is always uppermost and that we do have the resources available to be able to manage fisheries effectively.