Fishing Communities Receive $40m Compensation

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Fishing communities receive $40m compensation

The Federal Government has today announced another $40 million assistance for fishing communities and on-shore businesses affected by cutbacks in the fishing sector.

The announcement is part of a $220 million structural adjustment package to make Australia's fishing industry more sustainable and follows the buy-back of 550 fishing licences.

Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz says communities in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania have been affected the most.

"The impact has been for the benefit, albeit somewhat sweet, sour I must say," he said.

"Sweet in as much as I think we've got the industry on a good, viable footing but sour on the basis that some people that have spent a lifetime, some of them generations in the fishing industry, have bowed out."