Australia’s National Compliance Strategy

The Australia’s National Compliance Strategy 2022-2026 (PDF, 3.12MB) was developed by the National Fisheries Compliance Committee, a committee of the Australian Fisheries Managers Forum.

The mission of the strategy is to achieve the optimal level of compliance.

The optimal level of compliance is that which holds the level of non-compliance at an acceptable level, which can be maintained at reasonable cost while not compromising the integrity and sustainability of the resource.

This is underpinned by the following strategic objectives:

• maintaining productive working relationships with stakeholders and developing a partnership approach to fisheries management where possible
• pursuing cooperation with fisheries stakeholders to develop and implement fisheries policies and laws that identify potential risks and strategies to lessen them
• pursuing cooperation across jurisdictions to form effective alliances between related agencies
• integrating compliance strategies into fishery management arrangements at the initial planning stage
• combatting opportunistic as well as organised criminal involvement in fisheries
• ensuring that fisheries laws are administered and enforced fairly, reasonably and cost effectively for both fishers and compliance agencies
• maintaining the safety, effectiveness and integrity of fisheries compliance officers through training, effective policies and procedures, and accountable decision-making.

The strategy will be used as a reference in developing local compliance strategies and plans to ensure a consistent approach to fisheries compliance throughout Australia.