Demersal fishing ban
1292. Hon Julie Freeman to the Minister for Fisheries:
I refer to Legislative Council question without notice 1256 answered on 9 December 2025, which confirmed that the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development modelled the west coast demersal scalefish resource to recover to target levels by 2040.
(1) Did DPIRD provide any advice recommending that the west coast demersal fishery be permanently closed beyond 2040 or was the decision to make the closure permanent made solely by the minister?
(2) Will the minister table all DPIRD advice, modelling or documentation that recommended a permanent closure, and, if no such advice exists, will the minister state that explicitly for the record?
Hon Jackie Jarvis replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development advised a total closure was required to recover the west coast demersal scalefish resource to target levels by 2040. Rather than suspend these businesses' ability to fish for 15 years, which appears to be what the member is inferring, I made the decision to provide a $20 million buyout of the licences of the 41 boats fishing for demersal in the west coast bioregion. The $20 million figure represents around four times the gross value product of these fisheries.
(2) I refer the member to the scientific stock assessments that I tabled in this place on 18 September, and listed as tabled papers 602, 603, 604, 605 and 606. The opposition has also been provided with the science, and the shadow spokesperson for fisheries has been given briefings by me, DPIRD scientists and attended the Fishing Futures Forum.
