Govt to buy back 600 fishing licences

[theoldlegend]

I'm a bit confused by all this. But then, it doesn't take much to totally confuse me.

Where does the Federal Government come into the picture? I thought licences were controlled by the individual States. From what I've been reading, the system has been exploited in NSW. I would like to see only active licences bought back and those licences that haven't operated for a number of years should not be allowed to be bought by somebody selling an active licence. If a licence hasn't been operated for a certain period, then it should be cancelled.

The initial funding in NSW for the buybacks was only a loan and through our annual fees, it is we who are paying to repay the loan and also for this exploitation. The NSW Fisheries website expenditure figures would indicate that about 9 or 10% of the fees collected goes in admin costs with a similar figure spent on compliance. By "compliance" I imagine is the costs of the salaries, wages etc of the inspectors. So about one fifth of the total collected goes on stuff other than for what the original purpose was intended.

If this proposal by the Feds falls into the same trap as NSW, then unfortunately I think it might all be a bit of a waste of time. Is there an election coming up soon?

TOL

[Gazza]

JMO...
The word "VOLUNTARY" buyout..worries me

The reduced TAC's ,sound "good on paper"....BUTTTT...
e.g. tac is 10,000T...no fish left equals 6,500T only "able" to be caught ,TAC reduced to 6,500T

Is that "a win"

Also ,reduction of hooks.......read the fineprint ,another 2.5 MILLION will be "newly allocated" in the EEZ

NAHHHH....this crap is a "pension fund"...plain 'n simple ,funded by taxpayers federally
p.s. that's you 'n me anyways