Originally Posted by
Mark Robinson MP
Contrary to mikes comment one aim is to reduce commercial effort.
Yet that isn't mentioned at all in the objectives of the scheme, or in any of the information provided to the pro netters.
1. Objective
The objective of the scheme is to make the East Coast commercial net fisheries more sustainable by the voluntary surrender of ‘N1’ and ‘N2’ licences under a competitive tender.
http://www.qraa.qld.gov.au/images/Ap...guidelines.pdf
Mark I totally agree that this is good policy, and should go some way to sucuring a future for the pro netters wishing to remain in the industry, at least in short to medium term. Just a pity the admin costs are so high and coming out of the compensation money.
However from a rec anglers point of view, you couldn't design a $9mill net buy-back scheme that was more ineffective than this one.
1/ It's voluntary
2/ It not area specific
3/ Log Book history irrelevant (unused or hardly used licences can be sold back)
4/ Quota or effort is not being handed back with the licence
If you really wanted help out rec anglers instead of conning them into thinking the net buy-back is for their benefit, your Gov would be selecting several areas/creeks/rivers and creating rec fishing havens. Then use the $9mil to buy out all the net licences and effort in those selected areas.