30 September, 2026
25 SEPTEMBER 2026
MEDIA RELEASE
The NSW Aboriginal Land Council has condemned the NSW Government’s decision to abandon its proposed Aboriginal Cultural Fishing Regulation and refuse to commence section 21AA of the Fisheries Management Act 1994, while seeking sweeping new enforcement powers for Fisheries Officers.
Section 21AA was passed by the NSW Parliament in 2009 to recognise and protect Aboriginal cultural fishing. Seventeen years later, the Government has confirmed the law will remain dormant.
At the same time, the Fisheries Management Amendment (Enforcement) Bill 2026 would significantly expand search, surveillance, questioning and seizure powers, including powers to stop and search vehicles and boats, access personal information and seize boats, vehicles, fishing gear and other property.
NSWALC supports appropriate action against organised illegal fishing, seafood trafficking and black-market activity. Those objectives must not be used to justify broader powers without safeguards for Aboriginal cultural fishers.
NSWALC Chairperson Dr Ray Kelly said the Government had misrepresented community opposition to a restrictive regulation as opposition to legal protection for cultural fishing.
“Aboriginal communities rejected a flawed regulation built around restrictive bag limits. They did not reject section 21AA or their right to practise cultural fishing,” Dr Kelly said.
“The Government should have returned to Aboriginal communities and developed a better approach. Instead, it has abandoned the process and left our people without the protection Parliament passed 17 years ago.
“Now it is moving quickly to give Fisheries Officers greater powers, despite a documented history of disproportionate enforcement against Aboriginal people. That is a dangerous combination.”
The decision walks away from the Government’s election commitment to implement the recommendations of the 2022 Parliamentary Inquiry into the Commencement of the Fisheries Management Amendment Act 2009.
The inquiry found the Government had failed to give effect to the will of Parliament. It also found fisheries compliance activity and prosecutions against Aboriginal cultural fishers, particularly on the South Coast, were unacceptable and inconsistent with Closing the Gap.
Evidence presented to the inquiry showed:
- Aboriginal people accounted for 31 per cent of fisheries prosecutions between 1996 and 2020, despite making up 3.4 per cent of the NSW population.
- Thirty-eight of the 65 people who received jail or suspended jail sentences for fisheries offences from 2009 were Aboriginal, including 34 Aboriginal people from the South Coast.
- In the 18 months to June 2021, 70 Aboriginal people were charged with fisheries offences that did not result in a court outcome, compared with 12 non-Aboriginal people.
- The estimated annual Aboriginal cultural take of abalone was less than one tonne, compared with around 10 tonnes taken recreationally and an estimated 20 tonnes attributed to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Dr Kelly said the evidence did not support continued delay or stronger powers without firm protections and accountability.
“The inquiry found no review had identified cultural fishing as having a negative impact on marine resources. Yet our people continue to be framed as a sustainability risk and treated like criminals for practising culture and feeding their families,” Dr Kelly said.
“The Bill must include clear safeguards for cultural fishing rights, independent oversight and public reporting on enforcement action against Aboriginal people.”
The Government says cultural fishing will continue through interim access arrangements, Local Management Plans and permits issued under section 37.
NSWALC South Coast Region Councillor Danny Chapman said these measures were not a substitute for rights protected in law.
“An interim arrangement in place since 2010 is not reform. A permit requiring our people to ask the Government for permission to practise culture is not a right,” Cr Chapman said.
“On the South Coast, our people have been watched, followed, searched, prosecuted, fined and banned from the water. Families have lost income, fishing gear and access to Country. Some cases have been withdrawn only after years of stress and legal costs.
“Cultural fishing is not black-market fishing. Practising culture is not organised crime. More power in the hands of a department with this record puts our people at greater risk.”
The inquiry recommended that section 21AA commence by 30 June 2023. It also recommended an end to surveillance, compliance action and prosecutions against Aboriginal cultural fishers until the law commenced.
NSWALC is calling on the Premier and Minister for Agriculture to reverse the decision, immediately commence section 21AA, consult Aboriginal communities before the Enforcement Bill progresses and develop any supporting framework through an Aboriginal-led process.
“The answer to a failed regulation is a better Aboriginal-led process. It is not another generation of delay, backed by greater enforcement powers,” Dr Kelly said.
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NSWALC
NSWALC is the State’s peak representative body in Aboriginal Affairs and works to protect the interests and advance the aspirations of the 121 NSW Local Aboriginal Land Councils and the broader Aboriginal community. Established through the land rights movement of the 1970s, NSWALC was formally constituted as a statutory corporation under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983. It is the largest member-based Aboriginal organisation in NSW.