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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-16 Daily Xml
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Jeffriess, Mr B.

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Would the minister please update the chamber on the retirement of Mr Brian Jeffriess AM, CEO of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for her question. Mr Brian Jeffriess AM is the current CEO of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association. Recently, he announced he would be retiring after more than 30 years of service to the fishing and aquaculture industries. Mr Jeffriess will call it a day in December this year, and I would like to take this opportunity now to express sincere appreciation and recognition of service and acknowledge his contributions to the fishing and aquaculture industries.

Mr Jeffriess has extensive fisheries and aquaculture experience, spanning across industries from Australia's cold temperate ocean to the tropical north, and has represented aquaculture and fishing industries at state and national levels for many decades. Mr Jeffriess is a former chairperson of the National Fishing Industry Council and the Australian Seafood Industry Council, is a former director of the Australian Maritime and Fisheries Academy board, and has served on a variety of high-level committees, including the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the Commonwealth Fisheries Association, the Aquaculture Advisory Committee, the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation board, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Advisory Committee, and import/export committees, as well as participating in numerous industry advisory roles for the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.

That vast number of levels of involvement certainly demonstrates the high level of service that Mr Jeffriess has given to the industries in our state and country. In 2012, Mr Jeffriess was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia, or AM, for his service to the fishing and aquaculture industries as a contributor to the sustainable management and harvesting of Australian fisheries and through national and international professional associations.

Mr Jeffriess has been an industry spokesperson for southern bluefin tuna aquaculture in South Australia since it began in 1993. He was instrumental in developing a Japanese market for reasonably priced high-quality sashimi and establishing the aquaculture southern bluefin tuna industry as a premium sustainability produced product. In 2015, the industry was awarded the internationally recognised Friend of the Sea sustainability certificate.

From the mid-1940s to the early 1990s, all commercial southern bluefin tuna were wild caught, initially caught using the line and pole method and later—around the 1970s—by purse seining. Dramatic reductions in wild stocks through the 1980s led to individual transferable quotas allocated by the Australian government in 1984. Continued reduction in wild stocks led to a trilateral agreement between Japan, Australia and New Zealand in 1989 to establish a combined quota limit.

In 1994, the informal management of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery between the three countries was formalised, with the signing of the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna. Since then, the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna has managed the fish stock internationally for more than eight member countries. The stock is considered to have recovered, resulting in increases in quotas in recent years.

It was originally the Japanese interest that proposed ranching of southern bluefin tuna in the 1990s, in response to the ongoing decline of the wild fishery. In order to assess the potential of southern bluefin tuna aquaculture, or ranching wild-caught fish, a study was initiated by the then Tuna Boat Owners Association of Australia and the Federation of Japan Tuna Fisheries Co-operative Associations in conjunction with the Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation. The project was supported by the South Australian government and the Australian government and undertaken by the southern bluefin tuna industry in partnership with the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

Given what I have already said about Mr Jeffriess, it will probably not surprise members to find that Mr Jeffriess was the lead investigator. The success of this study provided the foundation for the establishment of the tuna farming industry in South Australia. Since farming began, more than 90 per cent of the total Australian quota is farmed in South Australia, with the remainder taken by recreational fishers or commercial fishers. Under Mr Jeffriess' leadership, the southern bluefin tuna aquaculture industry has grown since its inception in 1993, and southern bluefin tuna remains the most valued aquaculture product in South Australia.

In recent years, Mr Jeffriess has contributed significantly to the strategic management of the southern bluefin tuna industry by the commonwealth and PIRSA through representation at the annual Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna meetings to discuss future quota allocations for Australia, through cost recovery and other strategic industry discussions with PIRSA and through membership on the steering committee for the review for the Aquaculture (Zones—Lower Eyre Peninsula) Policy 2013 to support the sustainable expansion of aquaculture for both the existing established aquaculture sectors, such as tuna, yellowtail kingfish and mussels, and the emerging sectors, such as seaweed.

I would like to again thank Mr Jeffriess for his longstanding service and contributions to the South Australian seafood industry, and I take this opportunity to wish him all the very best for a hopefully restful retirement.

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