Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The 2019 Wooden Boat Festival is again showcasing Tasmania’s rich maritime history, drawing large crowds to Hobart’s waterfront with a large range of boats to marvel at, food stalls, and entertainment, the Festival is a great family day out.
The Hodgman Liberal Government is pleased to support this iconic festival by providing $750,000 towards this year’s event, with the same amount committed towards the next festival in two years’ time.
The Tasmanian Seafood Industry Council’s (TSIC) seafood marquee is also a great chance to show off the best of our $947 million per annum seafood sector, which has become synonymous with our premium food brand.
In partnership with the industry we are delivering our $26.15 million plan to grow the value of our world class wild catch and farmed seafood sector supporting thousands of jobs in regional areas.
This includes $150,000 over 3 years supporting TSIC to improve safety for commercial fishers and marine farmers.
We have also extended the successful East Coast Rock Lobster Translocation Program which is helping to re-build rock lobster stocks on the East Coast for both commercial and recreational fishers.
We are building the $5 million Fisheries Integrated Licensing and Management System to enable real time data transfer which will further reduce red tape and modernise fisheries management.
And, we have increased funding of $14 million over 5 years to our world-class Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) is providing fishing industry-relevant research and development to support new sustainable fisheries opportunities.
I congratulate Festival organisers, TSIC and everyone involved in making this year’s event another great success.