Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 1999 (NO. 2) 1999 NO. 98

STATUTORY RULES 1999 No. 98

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Fisheries Management Act 1991

Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations 1999 (No. 2)

Subsection 168(1) of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed and regulations necessary or convenient to be prescribed in carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Division 2 of Part 6 of the Act (sections 91 to 93 inclusive) relates to the receiving of fish from persons engaged in commercial fishing (operators). Subsection 91(1) empowers the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) to declare that the Division applies to particular fisheries (declared fisheries). Subsection 91(2) provides, among other things, for the grant of fish receiver permits, which allow a person to receive fish from an operator in a declared fishery. Subsection 92(2) provides that the regulations may require holders of fish receiver permits to make and keep accounts and other records, and to give returns or information, in relation to fish received by them. Section 42 provides that the regulations may provide for the holders of fishing concessions to record, and furnished returns containing, information about the taking and processing of fish, the sale or disposal of such fish and the carrying and transhipping of fish under fishing concessions.

The principal Regulations prescribe matters in support of the Act, including the making of records by fish receiver permit holders and the furnishing of such records to AFMA.

The purpose of the Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations (the Regulations) is to amend the principal Regulations in 2 ways:

*       The first matter relates to returning records of information by holders of fish receiver permits. Fish receiver permits need only be held by persons (such as fish processors) who receive some or all of their fish from operators in declared fisheries. Of these permit holders, only those in specified fisheries are required to make returns to AFMA in respect of those records. Until recently, only the South East Trawl Fishery, the South East Nontrawl Fishery, and the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery were specified fisheries for the purposes of requiring returns from fish receiver permit holders.

Due to the introduction of output controls in certain fisheries, AFMA now requires returns to be made in relation to those fisheries, namely the Southern Shark Fishery (SSF), the Bass Strait Scallop Fishery (BSSF) and the East Coast Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF). This allows AFMA to verify the quantities and species being taken in those fisheries. The Regulations amend the principal Regulations to require fish receiver permit holders to make returns of records made and kept in relation to species taken in the SSF, BSSF and the ETBF.

*       The second matter also relates to returns by fish receiver permit holders. The Regulations amend the principal Regulations in relation to the time by which the returns must be received by AFMA. Previously, the principal Regulations provided that the return must be posted to AFMA not later than the first Monday after the day on which the fish are received by the permit holder. There have been difficulties in enforcing this provision because the requirement to 'post' creates evidential problems. The Regulations amend the principal Regulations to that the return be received by AFMA within 10 days after the fish are received. This also provides more certainty for the holders of fish receiver permits as to when their returns are due.

Details of the Regulations, which commenced on gazettal, are set out below:

Regulation 1 provides for the Regulations to be cited as the Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations 1999.

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on gazettal.

Regulation 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the principal Regulations.

Schedule 1 Item 1 amends the heading for Regulation 10B of the principal Regulations.

Schedule 1 Item 2 inserts the word "or" after paragraph 10B(2)(c).

Schedule 1 Item 3 inserts a reference to the Bass Strait Scallop Fishery, the East Coast Tuna Fishery and the Southern Shark Fishery into paragraph 10B(2)(d) of the principal Regulations, which provides that fish receiver permit holders must furnish returns in relation to fish received from specified fisheries.

Schedule 1 Item 4 amends paragraph 10B(3)(d) of the principal Regulations in relation to when returns must be received by AFMA.