North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Well...well...well!

What a turnaround...

In the 2015 ALP policy on fisheries in Qld was this.....

$10 million set aside to provide buyback money for commercial net-fishing in 3 Qld locations.

2 in NQ and 1 in CQ ( the Fitzroy River and coastal area to the north of Yeppoon).

Currently the Fitzroy is flogged unmercifully by barra netters. Over 30 years of lobbying by recreation fishermen has only produced minor changes to netting (weekend and some geographical restrictions).

Apparently $2 million has been earmarked for the Fitzroy delta buyback scheme.

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/ne ... a/2526733/

There is also a review of Qld Fisheries management currently underway (recommendations yet to be made public).

One of the surprise topics raised by recreational fishermen during the consultation process was that fishing licences in Qld would be accepted PROVIDING that commercial netting was stopped in barramundi rivers and areas.

A narrow ALP win is predicted ( at worst a hung parliament).

So.... watch this space?

Interesting! Amazing how they plummeted in popularity in such a short time.

And also federally Mr Knighthoods, Abbott ...

I hope it's a sign of things to come. Locally and federally. It shows that people won't stand for so many broken promises and wholesale selling of public assets against their wishes.

I agree with the promices bit Scott but working on that premise we will just swing back and forwards every time as the are all tarred with the same brush. So on that basis the suggestion I made a few years back in forget the election and take turn about save a fortune in adds, paper, bribes, court cases, royal commissions etc etc etc. At least PUP is dying a natural death right where it started.

I find it interesting that pollies know that WE all know that they tell lies and won’t keep their promises and yet they know we are easily swayed for short term gain.
Mr Rabbit won’t last long now. But who will take the helm?
I think that, when they first get into politics, they really believe that they can make a difference and do the right thing, but it doesn’t take long for them to roll over and find the ability to tell bare faced lies and have no problems sleeping at night.
The alternative is that they are straight up lying bustards with no intention of ever doing the right thing.


it would be great if a pollie actually answered a question once every now and then instead of the lawyer talk sidestepping garbage they go on with.

Julie Bishop will take the helm no doubt.
Going to be interesting when the public wakeup to the fact she is worse than Abbott

Probably will ghound. Youre right about her being hard.

Wonder if Campbell is going fishing tomorrow. He doesn't have anything else to do.

Rumour has it that "Can Do" was last seen boarding a plane for Syria ( a popular place for pollies apparently).

On a more serious side:

I've been voting for quite a while now and each time I have thought carefully about it and worked out what I thought was in the best interests of country, state or municipality whatever the occasion called for.

In the last 10 years I've been disappointed with whoever got in irrespective if I voted for them or not.

I formed the view that as they didn't seem to have similar goals to me then they were "in it" for the wrong reasons. Either self, business or friendship/mates interests.

So why should I vote for any of them?

I thought along these lines. "If my previous voting habits were ignored so frequently in the past, then maybe I needed to concentrate a little closer to home in the future".

OK, I have security in accommodation, income, lifestyle, friendship and social interaction, what is the interest that I would like most to further?

Hobbies (fishing) and the biggest immediate impediment to that is the bl..dy commercial barramundi netting in my local river.

So does either of the political parties that matter have something along those lines?

Bugger me! Here's the ALP promising to stop the netting in my river!! And they have a funding plan.

A timely coincidence of interests.

Having not voted Labor for 20 years the only question was if my conscience would allow it. Yep it would. Could I sleep at night? I could. So I did.

Bugger all the other considerations after being ignored for so long. Time to think of self like the bl..dy pollies.

Was looking at my rubbish bin the other day. Grandson has covered it with union stickers about stopping the asset sales in Qld. I thought, yep sure sorted that issue out.

Then I realised that the stickers were put on 4 years ago when Labor was busy selling off Qld assets!! bl..dy hypocrites with policies of convenience (except fisheries policy of course).

I don't feel ignored now and my conscience allows me to sleep.

Well, I went to a regional fishing seminar in Gladstone yesterday.Lots of interesting subjects.

Seminar was opened by Qld Fisheries Minister Bill Byrne and he then had the floor for approx. 1 hour to give the latest on Net Free Zones and the MRag review.

In respect of net-free zones Bill Byrne had this to say:

The policy was taken to the election earlier this year and it’s a pledge to the people of Qld that he is determined to keep.

The Fisheries Dept website public comments section closed last Wednesday with some 6,500 comments recorded. There was overwhelming public support for the 3 net free zones policy.

He will make an announcement in August reaffirming Govt intention to introduce them and will instruct Fisheries Dept to draw up the legislative instruments. Those instruments (Fisheries Regulated Waters Declarations) will be signed into law to be effective at noon on 1st November this year to coincide with the beginning of the closed barramundi season on the east coast.

So its last drinks call for commercial netting in those 3 zones.

Representatives of the Qld seafood Industry Assn were at the meeting and had private discussions with Bill Byrne after his address. Those discussions revolved around strategies for compensation packages for those who wanted to leave the industry and those who wanted to stay on but netting in other areas.

Bill Byrne also made these comments:

The 3 previous volunteer buybacks (2012, 2013 and 2014) by the LNP Govt only had limited success in reducing fishing effort as some netters surrendered their licences, claimed the compensation, promptly leased dormant licences from the compensation package payment and continued netting. $7 million of taxpayers’ money spent for very little gain.

He said he was determined not to have that happen again and is reducing the netting effort to zero in the 3 nominated areas to ensure the outcomes the majority of people want and didn’t get previously.

There is $10 million set aside for compensation out of the Qld contribution to Great Barrier Reef management agreement with the Federal Govt.

There is to be a Charter Action Plan announced on or about 1 Feb 2016 ( opening of east coast barramundi season) to support local council and tourism bodies setting up industries based on tourism fishing.

He also said that after these 3 zone closures are “bedded in” he will turn his attention to other zones with Moreton Bay being next cab off the rank (as per the policy paper). There will have to be funding allocation in the 2016 budget for Moreton Bay.

The commercial netting interests at the meeting appeared “gutted” by what he had to say. Chairman Kev Riebel and CEO Karen Collard were in attendance. Minister Byrne also stated that he wanted to boost aqua-culture industries (barra farming in this instance) to augment the availability of Aus fresh barramundi for sale.

The election policy announcement in January by the Labor party caught everybody by surprise. Minister Byrne said that the policy wasn’t cobbled together at short notice. It had been refined over an 18 month period.

My observations are that the netting interests took the proposal as yet another easily fought off attempt to stop netting. They dragged out and dusted off the 3 old hoary arguments that had worked in the past and set about the other usually reliable tactic of getting the Minister’s colleagues to develop cold political feet from netting interest pressure and dissuade him from proceeding.

None worked with this Minister though and the netting interests had no plan B.

Their tactics were outdated. They tried to simply oppose any change and got steamrolled instead of jumping on-board the change express and influencing the direction that the change would go. A serious error of judgement.

Great report Ron. Maybe there will be a "million dollar fish" promo there in due course.

Great report Ron. I will be very interested to see how this progresses.

Matt
I have a bit of news about the $1 million barra.

Apparently its a promotion funded by Crown ( is that James Packer?) in conjunction with Tourism NT. What a promotion!!

The fish will be tagged over the next 3 weeks with the tagger departing Rockhampton in the next couple of days to do the job in about 7/8 different rivers. Not all tagged fish are $1 million so there's a few of them. 75 I think.

Can't you fellas catch barra in the NT that you have to import a Qlder to show you?

Sounds like a popular promotion anyway and maybe one we can use down here in a couple of years. But we won't copy yours of course.

Local estimates are that the barra population in the Fitzroy R will increase by 165,000 and the threadfin salmon will increase in numbers by 200,000 above the current population by 2020.

Latest news

The implementation of the 3 netfree zones has now been passed by Cabinet and is on its way to the Governor (in council) who is expected to give it the big tick.

It will then be tabled in Parliament where it will sit for 14 sitting days.

If no comment then it automatically becomes law effective midday 1 Nov (start of the east coast barra closure season). When it opens again at midday on 1 Feb 2016 ( start of the east coast barra season) there won't be a net to been seen in the Fitzroy River, Corio Bay and all places in between out to sea past the Keppels.

The only "comment "that the Opposition can raise is a notice of motion to disallow the amendment. That will result in a debate and a vote on the floor of Parliament where the Govt has the numbers. Any such notice will be token only and simply wasting everybody's time. So the Opposition has a decision to make.

So......... The Fitzroy River and environs is finally free of nets.

I've only been involved in the campaign since August last year but a couple of guys here have been very actively campaigning for 30 years. I dips me lid to them.

Its a goer out of the blue.

Thx for the update Ronje, I consider this very good news! I watched a piece on this the other day on Landline; sure there will be a number of families put out by this decision but they will be compensated which I think is more than fair. There are plenty of businesses in Australia that are struggling and plenty that have gone by the wayside because of government decisions. This is no different (apart from the compensation!!); I don't buy into the bleeding hearts. Life's tough and the current (as it is in many other jurisdictions) resource allocation is out of kilter before you even get into the effect of nets on total biomass of those systems.

Anyhoo glad to see this progressing, as I’ve mentioned on here previously; Lake Macquarie in NSW is a shining example. A desolate wasteland in the 90’s and now a great fishery with the potential to become an outstanding fishery in the next 5 or so years, notwithstanding a population of circa 6 million within a leisurely 2 hrs drive.

Look forward to the next update.