2016-10-25
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Minister, there are numerous references to sustainability in the legislation but no definition of sustainability in the very important definitions section of the bill. Why is this?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister. It is just that the Fisheries Act 1995 at section 29 refers to 'ecological sustainability' in relation to a fisheries management plan; otherwise the bill and the act only use the term 'sustainable'. So it reads like in performing that particular function in relation to a fisheries management plan the authority will need to be ecologically sustainable, but in relation to all its other activities it just needs to be sustainable. What is the difference if I am a member of this authority — who knows, I might even get appointed to the board one day — in terms of my decision-making?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister. Indeed it does not change section 29 of the Fisheries Act 1995 in relation to a fisheries management plan, but it is not possible to say that nothing is changing. We are getting a new body with new decision-making criteria that do not currently exist under any statute, and they have a set of old functions to deliver under those new criteria. For instance, when the agency makes a decision to stock hundreds of thousands of hungry non-native predator baby fish into a river, that might be sustainable in the sense that there is now a sustainable trout fishery there, but there are other things living in that ecosystem — other fish and other forms of aquatic life — which will be food for all these little starving but growing baby fish that have just been thrown into the river. For those parts of the ecosystem it could be totally ecologically unsustainable to keep having this horde of hungry baby fish thrown at them every year. That is why I was asking the question about the difference between ecological sustainability as a criterion under one function versus sustainability, which is really all the other functions. But if the answer you have given is the answer you want to rest with, then I will move on to another question within the same clause.
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Under the definition of 'fisheries sectors', we have these four sectors which I presume are meant to be all inclusive. There is the recreational sector, the commercial fishing sector, the Aboriginal fishing sector and the aquaculture sector. My question is in relation to charter fishing. Is that a commercial operation or is it a recreational fishing exercise?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Based on that answer, the definition behind these definitions is based on not whether there is money involved but basically what you do with the fish afterwards — that is, if you sell them, they must be commercial, whereas if I simply pay someone to take me fishing, that must be recreational even though it is obviously a highly commercial enterprise as opposed to just going fishing, which does not cost anything or did not cost much the last time I looked.
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Mr BARBER — I am just asking a question, that is all.
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Charter fishing and anything else that might have slipped through the net is recreational because you do not sell the fish in the end. Is that the reason why this definition operates that way?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Where else in this definition section does the community — that is, people who are not engaged in these activities but who do eat fish, restaurants that sell fish, environment groups that are concerned with ecological sustainability — fit under your all-inclusive sectors?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — That is the thing, Minister, they are not part of your bill and they are not part of your authority, so where is sustainability addressed without including environmental non-government organisations? How can the principle of equity be achieved without also including other people who are users of or interested in fish but who do not fit under your four definitions? How can the principle of stakeholder engagement and community participation, which is in a later clause, be achieved if these people do not count because they are not one of your four sectors?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — It is just interesting because management plans under the act can be for a recreational fishery, but at the moment, as far as I am aware, there are only management plans for commercial fisheries. At the rate you are going there will not be any commercial fisheries in Victoria soon. How will these functions, which are all through the bill in various disconnected ways — it is a sort of listicle approach to all the different things that this body is meant to consider — be done when the members have not been given the right definitions of the actual thing that they are managing when they sit down to be the fisheries management authority?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Well, not suddenly, Minister. These people have always been interested in all four of your new fisheries sectors. It is just that you are now legislating to give a fisheries management authority the responsibility of managing fisheries, and I want to make sure that they have got the right riding orders. But I think we have elicited as much as we are going to on this clause, so I am happy to move on to another clause.
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Minister, objective (a) is to promote sustainability, so does the government intend this to mean ecological sustainability? If so, why not say so?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — What is the difference between ecological sustainability and sustainability?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — We have also got this section that is about supporting the development of recreational and commercial fishing. Part of the regulatory function is to be ecologically sustainable when you do your fisheries management plans — that is assuming you ever do do any, and when I say 'you' I mean the authority. Assuming the authority ever gets around to doing a fisheries management plan for a recreational fishery, which must be ecologically sustainable under the principal act, is that not in conflict with the duties to support the development of recreational and commercial fishing — that is, how do you stick with your strict regulatory role versus what I might call your promotional role?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister, for recognising this is a new function. In terms of how they go about doing this new function, what in practice it means is that it is their job is to deliver Target One Million; right?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — It is not a new function? Apologies; I must have misheard you. I thought you said it was a new function.
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — But their job right now is to deliver Target One Million; is that correct?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — The 1 million part of Target One Million is 1 million anglers; right? If I understand it, there are about three-quarters of a million anglers now. So what you are looking for is one-third more people going fishing. That is the essence of what Target One Million is, and that is the job of this new body. Am I correct?
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Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — So what if they come back to you and say, 'Minister, we can't do it. We've got all of these sustainable fisheries. You want one-third more fishers out there chasing, hopefully, more fish, but we don't believe we can create one-third more fish, so therefore we don't think we can deliver Target One Million within our other statutory requirements, which is an ecologically sustainable fisheries management plan'? How does the entity then balance its different objectives, including the one which is to promote and develop, which is here basically, as you said, to deliver Target One Million?
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