Proposed reform to cost recovery for Victoria’s wildcatch fisheries
Victoria’s commercial fishers work hard to supply domestic and international markets with an extensive variety of the world’s finest fisheries products. The Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) supports these businesses to be profitable and sustainable.
The last 5 years have presented challenges for the seafood industry, with many businesses having to adjust the way they go about their work since the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges in export markets and worldwide disruptions to supply chains. It is now more important than ever to have clear, simple and fair processes to support this important industry.
For some time, wild catch seafood industry representatives have sought reform of commercial access licence levies. A move away from the current system of service-based cost recovery to an approach based on Gross Value of Production (GVP) is being considered to make the system fairer, particularly for smaller businesses and when times are tough.
Under a GVP-based levy model, annual levies would be based on the amount of fish caught by each individual licence holder and the value of that fish. This would mean licence levies would be calculated by multiplying the total weight of each fish species landed or produced (in kilograms) by the beach price (in $ per kilogram) for that species to give a GVP for each licence holder. The annual licence levy would be collected as a set percentage of the GVP generated from the previous year.
Reform Working Group
As a first step, the VFA has established a GVP Reform Working Group (the Working Group) that consists of industry and government representatives, and in independent chair. The Working Group will examine matters around the use of GVP as a basis for levy collection on commercial entitlements and how it might be implemented for the Victorian wildcatch sector. Matters to be considered will include:
- the principles that underpin a reformed system;
- the process and timelines to facilitate a change.
- consideration of the impacts on commercial entitlement holders and ways to achieve a measured approach;
- the securing of reliable beach price data to support a GVP based levy model;
- consultation with key stakeholders and experts to inform decisions;
- budgetary impacts and delivery of services by the VFA;
- governance and performance indicators to monitor a reformed approach; and
- the process and timelines to facilitate a change.
There is no intention to reform the fees and levies for permits, aquaculture entitlements or recreational fishing licences under this process.
Communication
A communique from the Working Group will be published below following each meeting.