Review of Commonwealth fisheries management legislation

In September 2012, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig, commissioned an independent review of the policy and legislation governing the Commonwealth’s fisheries management system – ‘Review of Commonwealth Fisheries: Legislation, Policy and Management’ (Fisheries Management Review).

The Fisheries Management Review was the first of its kind in over twenty years, and examined a range of issues set out in the Terms of Reference to identify if any improvements are needed to ensure community and industry expectations of the Australian fisheries management regime can be met into the future.

Mr David Borthwick AO PSM was appointed to undertake the review and provided his final report to Minister Ludwig in December 2012.

The report has now been publicly released:

• Review of Commonwealth Fisheries: Legislation, Policy and Management PDF [2.6MB]
• Review of Commonwealth Fisheries: Legislation, Policy and Management Word [1.2MB]

The Australian Government has responded to the review report and its recommendations in a Ministerial Statement. Minister Ludwig presented the Ministerial Statement to the President of the Senate on 25 March 2013.

In releasing the report, Minister Ludwig announced his broad in–principle agreement with the main findings of the review and announced a consultation process to follow this and the reviews of the Commonwealth Fisheries Harvest Strategy and Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch. To read the media release issued on 21 March 2013, go to the MAFF website.

The department is developing the next steps following the release of the report, including a broad consultation process in which the department will be the lead agency.