By AIDAN KNIGHT
STATE budget cuts announced on May 20 contained many controversial revelations for regional Victoria, ranging from the Parks Victoria slashings to the media-prominent EVSF levy.
Closely connected to Parks Victoria is the public service reductions in nature protection sectors, specifically those concerning fishery enforcement.
Labor’s 20 per cent cut to nature protection as a whole has left these agencies reeling, predicting an influx in illegal fishing within Gippsland, as resources to manage and police these illegal activities have been reduced.
The Victorian National Parks Association’s (VPNA) Nature Conservation Campaigner, Shannon Hurley, described the cuts as “environmental neglect disguised as budget management”.
This comes after the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) has seen a 50 per cent cut in staffing overall, which comes after years of already being understaffed as an organisation.
The authority currently employs 73 legal enforcement officers, whose job it is to protect fisheries by ensuring compliance with fishing regulations and laws, such as licensing, catch limits, animal cruelty and poaching. These are efforts to maintain the quality and quantity of Australian seafood and their habitats.
The recently announced budget cuts will see these 73 roles diminished to 36, and also gut the officers of any law enforcement ability, leaving them to transition to a new role of engagement officer. This restricts staff to merely educate offenders, rather than fine them or hold them accountable.
The Community Service and Public Sector Union has released a table displaying the current figures for the sum positions lost across the VFA as a result of these cuts.
This presents the obvious risk of removing the deterrent from illegal fishing activities, leaving room for a potential rise in the industry for an illegal fishing surge, one that the VPNA and other agencies are already predicting. Higher ups within the VFA have expressed this, with one such officer, David Burgess, likening the fishing black market to that of organised tobacco crime.
The Nationals Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull questioned Minister for Outdoor Recreation, Steve Dimopoulous on the numbers of offenders and resources to deal with them.
Mr Bull asked, “What will be the reduction in the number of on-water hours of fisheries officers in Victoria as a result, and what was the number of patrol craft before the cuts in comparison to post the reduction in staff?”.
Mr Bull also cited the VFA’s public compliance rate of 90 per cent out of the one million recreational anglers recorded within Victoria, stating “there are 100,000 anglers not doing the right thing. There is no data on offences in Gippsland specifically, but the VFA have publicly released a total of 2794 offenders detected in the 2024/25 period, which should be noted was the work of an already understaffed organisation, which had the potential to be a profitable revenue stream for the state government had it received adequate funds to maximise effectiveness across Victoria.”
Now, offenders will instead make the profit, with the $17,000 of illegally acquired abalone apprehended in Mallacoota this January having the free-reign to become the norm.
While these are alarming developments in the environmental sector, it is worth mentioning the strides that have been made in the budget for the allocation towards other areas in nature protection.
Threatened wildlife have been allocated a huge boost of $2.3 million for one specific project, Landcare will receive $17.3 million over a two-year period, and other areas of Victoria have seen the largest bushfire recovery allocation ever, at a whopping $20 million, with another additional $23.5 million put aside for fuel breaks and planned burnings.
