WA auditor general finds weakness in commercial fishing regulation

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In Western Australia, the state’s Office of the Auditor General issued a stern warning to the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development for its “light touch” to the regulation of commercial fishing, in a new report.

WA auditor-general Caroline Spencer said the office found the “weakness” in the department’s approach to fishing regulation could lead to an increased risk of illegal fishing.

Spencer gave two examples of deficiencies: a lack of targeting high-risk areas for compliance and not tracking the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement activities.

“The department needs to use its understanding of compliance risks to ensure its fisheries officers spend their time on tasks that are most likely to detect and deter serious offending in vulnerable fisheries,” the auditor-general said.

With fisheries officers based in small communities where they are often raising their families alongside commercial fishers, the report flagged, there is a risk of “over-familiarity” that needs to be monitored better to avoid a conflict of interest.

In response to the report, the department said it was committed to educating people about their obligations under the legislation.

“DPIRD has confidence in its regulation of commercial fishing, and in the integrity and effectiveness of its compliance program — but always seeks to do better.” the department said.

“DPIRD welcomes benchmarking and assessment by the Auditor General knowing that such review is healthy and will assist DPIRD with continual improvement.

“We have commenced a review of relevant findings with a view to identifying options and implementing improvements where required.”

The auditor-general made a total of five recommendations in its report, with the department accepting four of them.

The recommendation to introduce “regular analysis, management reporting and evaluation of its regulation functions” was rejected by the department.

“The department is of a view that sufficient analysis, reporting and evaluation of its regulatory performance occurs,” it responded.

DPIRD pointed to the State of the Fisheries report, annual report, and audited KPIs as an “appropriate” level of assessment.

The report raised the issue of trust and confidence within the same recommendation, with the department pointing to its engagement with stakeholders which includes the Marine Stewardship Council accreditation, as well as meeting its commonwealth obligations.

The recommendation to use data to better understand illegal fishing risks was accepted, although the department noted “compliance resources are not simply targeting illegal fishing and that addressing overfishing is a broader matter generally not related to compliance oversight”.

A review of the existing integrity framework was accepted by the department as well.

The department accepted the recommendations to improve licencing, entitlements, monitoring and reporting through its Digital Transformation Strategy and look for trends in its enforcement actions by fishing and offence type.

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