Following numerous representations to various officials and members of the Brack’s Government on the issue of Victoria’s dismal performance with regards to the development of an aquaculture industry, GAIN welcomes the news that Richard McLoughlin, Executive Director of Fisheries Victoria, will visit Gippsland to explain his Department’s position.

(Note: Mr McLouglin will be addressing the GAIN General meeting next Wednesday 25th September - see Local Roundup above for details)

“Mr McLouglin was recruited to head Fisheries Victoria from Tasmania in the mid 1990’s and has an excellent understanding of the industry and his input to the debate will be invaluable”, Mr Tony McLennan, chairman of GAIN, said today.  “The aquaculture industry was one ideally suited to rural and regional areas.”

GAIN expressed its concern that an apparent lack of a strategic plan and an effective industry structure were impacting on the potential growth and prospects for regional communities and families.

“Five years was invested by the industry with the previous government in the development of the Victorian Aquaculture Strategy which was released in December 1998,” he said today.  “Further effort and time was invested in the Aquaculture Regulatory Review Taskforce under David Harris.  It is reasonable to ask where these documents have found expression in Government policy.”

“To the casual observer they are gathering dust in offices across the state rather than being used to build jobs and opportunities for regional Victorians.  Is it any wonder that we are exporting would-be investors and their job opportunities interstate.”

He went on to cite the Tasmanian Tamar Valley’s now world famous seahorse aquaculture venture.  “This venture was originally slated to be set up in Gippsland, but the lack of a supportive regulatory structure has resulted in Tasmania harvesting the benefits in terms of wealth creation and the boost to their local tourism industry” he said.

GAIN noted that it is widely accepted around the world that the wild harvest of seafood has reached and, in many cases exceeded sustainable yield levels.  Increasing fishing effort is been applied with steadily decreasing returns.  Catch levels peaked in 1995 near the 100 million tonne level and dipped to 87 million tonnes by 2000.  At the same time aquaculture worldwide increased its output from 20 million tonnes per annum to just over 42 million tonnes,

Recent studies released earlier this year by the CSIRO confirmed that, in response to a growing understanding of the dietary benefits of seafood and cultural changes within Australian society, Australian consumption of seafood within the coming decades would grow by 140,000 tonnes.  The Australian Seafood Industry Council stated at this time that the wild harvest sector had zero capacity to meet this anticipated increased demand.  They claimed the only options available for Australia were to intensively culture seafood here or to import the product from overseas.

GAIN has been critical of the Brack’s Government’s apparent lack of action on the development of a Victorian aquaculture industry.  Particularly so as the only other options were to continue to export jobs and development capital to other states or offshore, or alternatively, to contribute to the continued rape of Third World countries food resources.

“In April 2001, a senior Treasury official promised an overhaul of the aquaculture industry in line with the principles applied to the grain and wine industries.  The only action to date appears to have been a reinstatement of funding that was slashed in the previous Budget”, said Mr McLennan.

Aquaculture is Australia’s fastest growing agribusiness sector, growing at 18% per annum for the last decade in Australia.  Despite Victoria’s natural and human resource advantages, aquaculture production in Victoria in 1998 was slightly less that 4% of Australia’s total cultured seafood at less than $20 million.  The last 3-4 years has seen job and enterprise contraction, although the overall value of the produce has grown to maintain roughly the same value output. 

Commercial Fish Production figures from Fisheries Victoria for 2001 show Victoria is currently producing less than 2% of Australia’s culture seafood production.  75 industry jobs have been lost since 1998, bring the total down to 443.  In contrast to the industry performance for the rest of the country, there has been a contraction of 7% in license holders down to 213, many of whom are not producing product in commercial quantities.

Surveys done in Gippsland show that in contrast to the trend across the state, Gippsland had had an increase in both licenses and jobs.

“GAIN has shown that a region can help itself in promoting opportunities for the community, but it could be so much more effective if the Government delivered on its rhetoric of policy concern for regional areas”, stressed Mr McLennan.  “Less talk and more action is required.”

“Mr Peter Shelley, president of the Tasmanian Aquaculture Council, stated at a GAIN meeting in 1999 that Gippsland had the potential to produce $100 million a year in cultured seafood within a decade.  Given that the Tasmanian industry produces this amount of product currently, this means that an aquaculture industry in Gippsland should be able to support 1,500 full time equivalent sustainable jobs.” he said.

The GAIN meeting will be held at the Latrobe Motel and Convention Centre, Princes Highway Traralgon on the 25th of September 2002, from 1.00 pm to approximately 3.30 pm.  GAIN General Meetings are open to the public and all interested persons will be made welcome, particularly given the importance of this month’s meeting.

For further information please contact:

Tony McLennan, GAIN chairman      0408 513 500
Graeme Blackman, GAIN Asst. Secretary       0418 501 433

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