Victoria’s fishing licence: how to boost revenue

MELBOURNE Ross Winstanley

Coinciding trends are on a collision course for Victoria’s recreational fishers, and one possible solution could be to replace fishing licence exemptions with low-fee licences. While considered in 2016 and 2019 reviews of the Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL), the Government has opted to retain the current system for now.

Today, despite population growth and annual fee increases, as annual licence sales are falling, the rate of increase in licence revenue has stalled, averaging $8.2M since 2016/17.

At the same time, the Victorian Government is shifting more of the costs of its core responsibilities and policy programs to the licence fund. This is reducing the RFL Grants Program funding available for recreational fishers and their allied interests, which was the original purpose of the RFL fund.

On top of this, fewer fishers than ever now take out the recreational fishing licences that support essential programs; in 2018/19, just 31% of adults who fished bought licences. The minority are subsidising the majority of fishers, as well as funding Government programs. Two things could help the RFL Grants Program to operate sustainably: require all adult fishers to contribute as stakeholders, according to their means, and reduce governments’ share of RFL funds.

Stalled Annual Rfl Revenue

After increasing for 15 years, annual licence numbers peaked in 2014/15, then began a continuous decline, reaching their lowest-ever level in 2021/22 (see Fig.1 ). This occurred despite Victoria’s 40% population growth since the licence began in 1999. And, it occurred while participation in fishing had risen to 16% of Victoria’s adult population in 2018. Further still, it occurred while the Government invested $90 million trying to boost annual participation to one million adult fishers.

The slide in sales counteracted indexed increases in annual fees. As a result, annual licence revenue has plateaued since 2017, averaging $8.2M over the past six years (see Fig.2 ).

Part of the explanation for the declining sales may be disinterest among young adults. Released in March 2023, the report of the National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers, 2018-2021 found that the highest level of disapproval of recreational fishing by Australians was among 18-24-year-olds. If this continues while they age, and if future entrants to that age group hold similar views, then the percentage of Victorian fishers holding licences may decline even further.

Declining Grants Funds

Why does this matter? If fishing is managed for the benefit of fishers, and helps all who wish to fish to do so, why should we care if annual licence revenue has stopped increasing every year?

While there may be other reasons, the most immediate concern for fishers is the impact on the other 60%. Now, the increased cost-shifting of state-funded functions to the RFL trust account has negated governments’ commitment to the user pays principle. Most “users” aren’t paying, nor are governments paying on their behalf.

From the introduction of the licence in 1999, governments’ promise to fishers was to focus licence revenue on building the annual RFL Grants Program. This was made clear in ‘ Your Licence Fees at Work ’ brochures, which showed the target of 75% of funds to be allocated to the Grants Program, for projects of up to three years, developed by or in

Catchment Management

Authorities have benefited significantly, with RFL funding for ‘habitat improvement works’ featuring prominently each year. While these projects have some fisher input or endorsement, to a large degree, fishers have become ‘project takers’, instead of ‘project makers’. After increasing steadily for 17 years, combined annual RFL funding commitments have flattened out at just under $4M pa, for enforcement, education/information, Fishcare, VRFish, fish stocking, and Target One Million/Go Fishing Victoria. Now, in the postpandemic times, it seems funding available to them through the RFL Grants Program. When the licence was established in 1999, its main purpose was to establish a large and growing annual funding source for projects developed by or in conjunction with fishers to improve recreational fishing in Victoria. It was created with the understanding that it “applies the user pays principle equitably across the adult recreational fishing population.” Governments’ longstanding funding commitment to the recreational fishing program was to be maintained on behalf of the fishers who are exempt from the licence, and recognising governments’ responsibility to conserve the public fish resource. If the userpays principle is observed today, the Government’s annual contribution to the recreational fishing program should be $28M.

Before the RFL’s introduction in 1999, the Amateur (or ‘freshwater’) Fishing Licence contributed about 40% of the Recreational Fisheries Program annual budget; the State budget provided conjunction with fishers (see Fig.3 ).

That target was to be reached once repayments for the buyouts of commercial fishing licences were completed. The remaining 25% was to be allocated to ongoing compliance, VRFish, and RFL administration costs. However, by 2021/22, the Grants Program received only 14% of RFL revenue, while compliance and administration received 35% (see Fig.4 ). At 32% of RFL funding, the “Go Fishing Victoria” initiative now takes major credit for fish stocking, kids fishing events, festivals, and access.

FISHERS’ LIMITED CAPACITY

How has this happened?

Governments don’t like to leave money unspent in trust accounts. So, when recreational fishers showed limited capacity for developing and delivering a steady stream of substantial R&D projects, government agencies, universities and other bodies capitalised by obtaining funding for works and research programs. For example, inevitable that the RFL costs for most of these will continue to rise.

The main concern for recreational fishers is that the funds available for competitive grants are at the lowest point since 2002/03 (when licence revenue totalled $3.9M). Additionally, of grants to ‘new’ projects reported in 2018/19, 60% went to the VFA’s projects, leaving just $732,000 for other projects.

That is a concern for recreational fishers and their partners in R&D projects. It will be a particular concern as Government finances are set to tighten in 2023/24, increasing the Grants Program’s focus as the prime alternative source of funding for Go Fishing Victoria and other Government policydriven programs.

So, how can recreational fishers get back more influence over the Grants Program? For a start, a group drawn from a crosssection of fishing interests could identify and prioritise R&D needs and invite expressions of interest from a range of potential

‘contractors’ from within or outside the recreational fishing sector.

Exemptions

At the heart of these issues is the question: who are the large number of adults who fish without licences? Every one of them is a stakeholder in RFL-funded programs and is entitled to a say on future while a little more than 500,000 adults fished unlicensed. As compliance with the licence is so high, can it be that about 60% were exempt from holding a licence on account of their senior, pensioner, veteran, carer, disabled, or Aboriginal status? From the national survey, we have clear that included examination of “the costs and benefits of expanding the categories of recreational fishers required to hold a licence (i.e., current exemptions).” However, the only form of assessment of expanding the licence was an informal discussion among a limited group of fishing stakeholders. Earlier, in

RFL investments, as well as enjoying the opportunity to fish. But is it fair to expect a minority of adult fishers to buy the licences that pay for benefits they all enjoy without making any contribution?

Released in March 2023, the National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers, gives us the best recent estimate of the numbers of adult fishers in the state: 840,900 in 2018. That’s an important starting point in examining the matter of exemptions.

VFA statistics indicate that about 95% of adult fishers comply with the requirement to hold a licence. It is also suggested that, under the current suite of licence exemptions, the cause of the declining percentage of licensed fishers is increasing numbers reaching ages where they become exempt from holding licences.

Now, with the 2018 estimate of adult numbers, we can look at ‘exemptions’ in relationship to the number of licences sold and resulting revenue for each year.

First, the number who fished in 2018/19 while holding licences is a combination of those who bought licences in that year, plus those who bought 3-year licences in the previous two years. That’s a total of about 333,000 licensed adults who fished in that year, evidence that over-65-yearolds make up the smallest adult age group, comprising just 15% of fishers in 2020

(see Fig.5 ). That suggests that the other non-age linked exemptions largely account for most unlicensed adult fishers. That’s a lot of active, unlicensed fishers that qualify for exemptions – exempt fishers outnumber licensed fishers by a factor of two. This seems disproportionately high and means that every RFL-holder today is subsidising two non-paying adult fishers.

It’s simplistic to propose that exempt fishers are less able to contribute to the RFL program at some level. As Fig.5 shows, most fishers are 18 to 44 years old, spanning the age-group of young families and householders, many of whom face comparable financial challenges to those older age groups.

A Path To A Solution

In 2019, VRFish wrote to then-minister, Jaala Pulford, seeking a review of the RFL arrangements. Among their major concerns, they pointed to the need for “A more stable and equitable revenue base for improving recreational fishing.” VRFish stated their concern about the minority – RFL-holders – subsidising the non-licensed majority.

The review proceeded under terms of reference

2016, when referring to unlicensed adult fishers supported by licence holders, a government review of the RFL fees and licence structure observed that, “Such cross- subsidisation should be avoided,” but didn’t evaluate reduced-fee licences.

The Government’s response to the 2019 review was, “The current and longstanding exemptions for holding a RFL should be retained, as the benefits of any changes are unlikely to outweigh the costs.”

However, four years on, I think it might be worth having another look at this issue. So, here’s a quick sketch of the potential cost benefit.

As outlined above, in 2018/19 there were about 500,000 unlicensed fishers. Setting aside those who might take out short-term licences, if 250,000 took out 1-year licences at halfprice ($19 at the 2023 rate), the boost to RFL revenue would be $4.75M. The net benefit would substantially outweigh the added administrative costs.

Conclusion

On the recent 20-year trend, Victoria is heading to where fewer than 30% of adult fishers hold licences, while the available annual Grants Fund share dips towards less than 10% of annual RFL funding. This position has been reached under the administration of successive governments over the past decade.

Coinciding with the steady decline in annual RFL sales, the post-2014 Victorian Government has invested about $90 million aimed at boosting participation to one million fishers. However, although this may have stimulated regional economies and business interests, I doubt that the decreasing number of RFL-holders would want to subsidise even more unlicensed fishers.

In their 2019 letter to Minister Pulford, VRFish stated, “A long-standing concern is a minority of recreational fishers are subsidising the majority of Victorian recreational fishers who do not need to purchase a licence.”

If current fishing trends continue, the government will hopefully reconsider the benefit of low-cost licences without exemptions, so that 30% of fishers don’t have to carry the cost for all.