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FACT SHEET
Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016
On 6 June 2016 the Minister for Primary Industries and Water announced a range of reforms
to ensure the regulation of the salmon industry keeps pace with industry expansion and ensure
that community and market confidence is maintained. Three measures were announced to
achieve these reforms: (1) the Environment Protection Authority taking over responsibility of
environmental regulation and day to day environmental management of the industry; (2)
amending the penalty regime for breaches of the Marine Farming Planning Act 1995 to better
reflect the scale of the industry; and (3) introduction of a new industry levy that will directly
contribute to funding work undertaken by DPIPWE supporting expanding industry production.
The purpose of the Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016 is to amend the Marine
Farming Planning Act 1995 (MFP Act) in order to strengthen the enforcement mechanisms
relating to breaches of the Act to better reflect the scale of the industry.
The Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016 will introduce the head of power for the
regulations to prescribe special penalties for offences under section 91 of the MFP Act relating
to the obstruction of the execution of a marine farming development plan. The Bill will also
provide for demerit points to be tied to infringement notices issued in relation to an offence
under section 91 of the MFP Act.
The Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016 introduces the concept of special penalties
that would apply to specific, serious breaches of management controls where prosecution may
occur. The Bill proposes that for an offence under section 91(1) of the MFP Act, where a
person is found guilty, in addition to a penalty under subsection (1) or the payment of costs
under subsection (2), the court must impose a special penalty of an amount that is either
prescribed by regulations or calculated in accordance with a method prescribed by the
regulations.
The intention is that special penalties are prescribed in the Marine Farming Planning Regulations
2006 and will target specific marine farming activities such as exceeding the total permissible
dissolved nitrogen output which is a critical environmental control in salmonid marine farming
development plans. It is envisaged that a special penalty formula for such an offence will take
into account the scale of the breach and the value of the fish produced as a result of the
breach. It is not proposed to cap the level of the proposed special penalty, because by their
very nature special penalties are designed to be based on a consistent formula that can be
applied to an individual situation that imposes a penalty proportionate to the financial
advantage obtained from the breach, thus acting as a deterrent.
In 2007 the MFP Act was amended so that the penalties imposed by infringement notices
ceased to accrue demerit points. This Bill reinstates the application of demerit points for
infringement notices under section 91 of the MFP Act. As is currently the case, once a person
has accrued 200 demerit points they will be disqualified from holding or obtaining a lease
(under section 124 of the MFP Act) and disqualified for five years from holding a marine
farming licence (under section 246A of the Living Marine Resources Management Act 1995).
One demerit point is accrued for each penalty unit imposed by a court or infringement notice.
Attaching demerit points to infringement notices will provide flexibility to the regulator to
manage instances of ongoing breaches.
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Given the severity of offences under section 91, the ability to impose a sanction that may
involve the disqualification of a person from holding or obtaining a lease and the five year
disqualification from holding a marine farming licence is considered an appropriate deterrent to
impose. It should be noted that the Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016 specifies that
special penalties will not accrue demerit points in the way that fisheries offences do.
The amendments to the MFP Act will impact both the finfish and shellfish sectors. Given that
the shellfish sector is much smaller than the finfish industry, in total and in terms of the scale of
its individual operators, it will be important to ensure that the impacts are not unintentionally
onerous. The Marine Farming Planning Amendment Bill 2016 has been drafted to enable any
special penalties in the regulations to be prescribed for specific circumstances or specific
offences rather than being applied across all marine farming operations.
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