Hon Martin Aldridge questions the Minister for Fisheries regarding an exemption granted to Kailis Bros for extra western rock lobster fishing for charitable donation, seeking details on statutory powers, other exemptions, purposes, and criteria.

AnsweredQoN 94Legislative Council
Asked
20 February 2019
Portfolio
Fisheries

QuestionView source ↗

WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER
FISHERY — MINISTERIAL EXEMPTION
94. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the minister representing the
Minister for Fisheries:
I refer to the article in The
West Australian of 4 February, which stated that the minister had used his
powers to grant an exemption to Kailis Bros to fish an extra 450 kilograms of
western rock lobster as a charitable donation.
(1) What statutory powers did the
minister use to grant this exemption?
(2) What other exemptions has the
minister granted using these statutory powers?
(3) For what purpose have exemptions
been granted?
(4) What criteria or guidelines were
considered in granting these exemptions?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the member for some notice
of the question. On behalf of the Minister for Regional Development
representing the Minister for Fisheries, I provide the following answer.
(1) It is section 7(2)(d) of the
Fish Resources Management Act 1994.
(2) In 2017–18,
170 exemptions were granted, details of which are listed in the Department of
Primary Industries and Regional Development annual report. To date for 2018–19,
a total of 106 exemptions have been granted. Details for each of these will
also be listed in the 2018–19 annual report. Almost all of these
exemptions were issued by the department under delegation. Under the previous
Liberal–National government, the number of exemptions granted in 2015–16
was 183.
(3) The purpose
of these exemptions covers a wide variety of activities and outcomes. These
include scientific sampling, fisheries management, aquaculture broodstock
collection, biosecurity surveys, gear trials, public events and charitable
donations et cetera.
(4) In accordance
with section 7(2) of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994, exemptions can be
granted for the purposes of research, environmental protection, public safety,
public health, commercial purposes, community education about and compliance
with the act, and enforcement of the act.

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