NSW Commercial Fishing industry demand compensation over NSW Government reforms

Veteran commercial fishers, who were sent bankrupt by NSW Government reforms, are pleading for compensation and a public inquiry on the industry. Hear their heartbreaking stories.

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Commercial fishermen and women across the state are calling for the NSW Government to provide “urgent compensation” following sweeping reforms that forced decade-old family businesses into bankruptcy.

Veteran mud crab fisher Heather Elliott, from Wallis Lake, launched a 10,000-strong campaign to seek an urgent public review for compensation from the government over reforms that forced small and medium businesses to bid hundreds of thousands of dollars against entrepreneurs and big commercial fishers to continue to catch historic levels of seafood.

Bob and Heather Elliott have led a campaign for fishers to be compensated.

“We need a full public inquiry, that is what we are demanding of the NSW Government,” Ms Elliott told NewsLocal. “Because that is the only way that devastated families will be compensated for what they have lost.”

Ms Elliott and her 78-year-old husband, Bob, lost 95 per cent of the income from their 60-year-old business in the two years following the introduction of the Commercial Fisheries Business Adjustment Program.

“The government forced fishers to compete for the shares that they needed to survive,” she said. “It didn’t matter how long your business had been in the industry, or how much you caught previously — we were all stripped of our catches.

The NSW fishing industry has been brought to its knees following reforms that made small businesses compete for shares to stay afloat..

“The entire industry has been decimated and destroyed, we are on our knees.”

Ms Elliott claims the Department of Primary Industries failed to identify the implications the reforms would have on the industry: “When we got into the share market trading we were hit with bids of $200,000 to do the same job we did yesterday again today”. 

“The harder you worked the more chance you had of having your livelihood ruined,” she said.

She also claims the department failed to conduct a socio-economic impact study to oversee share market trading, which “could have prevented price-gouging in the trading system”.

“The government created a framework for the study, but didn’t conduct the study itself,” she said.

Mrs Elliott said she and her husband were forced to bid up to $200,000 for shares to keep their business afloat.

The framework report, conducted by authors from the University of Canberra, called for the socio-economic impact study to identify “who is impacted by the reforms (and) a range of potential impacts of the NSW commercial fisheries reforms”.

The framework also suggested the report should consider various assistance measures for fishers and “looks at how well the government is currently managing negative impacts through these assistance measures”.

Prior to the reforms, fishermen operated at the same level of access rights, which identified the total number of working days, fishing locations and the amount fishermen were allowed to catch of certain species.

But the reform program saw the introduction of a share trading scheme that made all levels of business compete for catch locations and amounts available. 

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MLC, Mark Banasiak, supported fishers calls for an independent inquiry “into how the government conducted reforms”.

Heather and Bob Elliott hand over the 10,000 strong petition to Shooters and Fishers representatives Philip Donato and Mark Banasiak.

“The share trading scheme in particular, saw this government make bids on fishing endorsements that inevitably left real fishermen without the ability to stay in the market,” he said. “There are inconsistencies and concerning questions that need to be unpacked that only an independent inquiry can achieve.”

The Department of Primary Industry said the reforms were designed to allow fishers to “invest in their business with more certainty” and introduced linkages between shares and catch effort.

A NSWDPI spokeswoman said the NSW Government’s Commercial Fishing Business Adjustment Program was an essential reform which will “ensure this state’s fish resources can be effectively managed and that we will have a viable and sustainable fishing industry in the future”.

Bob and Heather Elliot at Parliament on Thursday. Picture: Jake McCallum

“The Program included a comprehensive package of assistance measures for all NSW

commercial fishers,” the spokeswoman said. This included low-interest rate loans, grants for professional advice, fishing business buyouts (and) participation in the Subsidised Share Trading Market — where the Government subsidised the cost of shares traded between fishers.”

The spokeswoman revealed the government commissioned independent researcher, Dr Kate Barclay from the University of Sydney in August of 2019 to conduct the social and economic impact assessment — almost two years after the share trading scheme commenced — with the report yet to be completed.

“The first stakeholder survey as part of this work was completed late last year and will inform Dr Barclay’s report,” she said.

A total of 216 fishing businesses were cancelled under the governmen’t buyout program, at a total cost of $4.32m, according to the department.

The fishing industry has more than halved across the state since the reforms.

Agriculture Minister, Adam Marshall said the series of claims made in the petition were false.

“The reforms were necessary and this government went to extreme lenghts for industry advice and feedback,” Mr Marshall said. “The government took industry reforms very seriously, it was challenged in the Supreme Court and upheld.

“It has now been fully implemented and I will not see the industry put through unrest so somemembers can indulge in conspiracy theories.”

Orange state Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP, Philip Donato, tabled the 10,000 signature petition to parliament on February 6.