According to the information the Blue Mud Bay High Court ruling in 2008 gave Indigenous landowners exclusive rights to intertidal zones. From that period the Northern Territory Government has been in discussions with land councils to prevent the introduction of individual fishing permits. The Tiwi Land Council said that the Government has failed on number of promised projects. Therefore, it is now forcing people to get permits if they want to fish in Tiwi waters.
The Commercial Fishing Associations’ Peter Manning is outraged at the Territory Government saying that if the deal failed by the NT Government on compensation the Northern Land Council will pull out too. He added that the land council has every right to demand permits from anyone wanting to fish in Tiwi waters. He also said that the Government’s been very slow on making any decent compensation offers.
According to Manning people are running out of patience on this whole system that we are going to use as far as being able to fish. He said that he was involved in bringing together Northern Land Council, the Tiwis and the Anindilyakwa under a joint management system but that seems to go nowhere.
