Member for Burnett, Stephen Bennett said the Government will be looking to ensure maximum benefit for industry and taxpayers from the Newman Government’s East Coast fishery net buyback program.
Mr Bennett said he was determined to stop speculation surrounding the value of net licences.
“We’re determined to reduce net fishing to make the industry more sustainable, but we certainly won’t be buying licences at inflated prices,” he said.
“We know full well what licences have been trading for and that’s what they’ll be worth during the buyback.”
In line with industry wishes, 50 per cent of net licences will be withdrawn to keep the industry sustainable.
Mr Bennett said the Government wanted to buy as many N1 and N2 licences as possible. Currently there are 320 licences – 161 N1 and 159 N2 licences – on the books.
Concerned that some licence holders viewed the buyback as ‘easy Government money’, Mr Bennett said the Government would not be paying any silly prices, adding if we do not achieve what we expected from the first round, we would look seriously at management options.
“The Minister McVeigh has instructed the Chairman of the buyback steering group, Mr Scott Spencer, to draw up a list of management options to stop any speculation and ensure we achieve our goals,” he said.
“Such management options could include a trebling of licence fees because of the increase in value of remaining licences, along with VMS satellite tracking and reporting, and taking out latent licences with historically low takes.”
Minister McVeigh said he was also close to formalising options from the crab review that is running parallel to the net buyback.
“We’re running the two simultaneously to ensure there’s no shift of effort into crabbing.
“This is about getting the best result for our fishing industries, the best result for the environment and the maximum value for taxpayers’ dollars.”