Quota and licence allocation mechanisms and their implications for resource rent.

A report was produced that focussed on the mechanisms for the allocation of access rights to the fisheries around the AustralianAntarcticTerritories of Heard and McDonald Islands (HIMI) and Macquarie Island (MI), and considers the economic implications of changes to these mechanisms when the current arrangements expire.

The Australian Fishery Management Authority (AFMA) was planning on reviewing all management arrangements for the HIMI and MI fisheries.  Long term management arrangements tunder consideration and anvestigated in the report include the continuation of fishing, management of the HIMI fishery, and possibly also the MI fishery, established through a statutory management plan under the Fisheries Management Act 1991.  This allows the allocation of Statutory Fishing Rights (SFRs) under a statutory management plan to take place by a variety of methods, which could include auction, ballot or tender.  The Coalition Government in Australia at the time had pledged to continue the existing cost-recovery policy for fisheries and not impose a resource rent on the industry. This project discusses the different mechanisms of allocating access rights in fisheries in relation to their likely effectiveness in capturing resource rent: administrative decision, ballot and auction and their likely implications for the fishing industry.