Dave Kelly’s lobster deal is on the rocks

It all started with a fight over a feed of crays.

A paper trail of emails and letters spells out why the current war about Western rock lobster quotas and the McGowan Government’s decision to seize a piece of the action was looming back in late 2017, just ahead of a Christmas lunch.

I will get to those documents soon.

For the record, I have always pondered why people talk about these crustaceans as if they are some kind of precious sunken treasure.

A Jurien Bay cray fisherman once described Western rock lobster to me as “the rats of the sea”.

The obvious answer to crayfish hysteria is market economics. If a single lobster can be flogged in Asia for $100 then the ocean “rats” are worth their weight in gold.

Enterprising fishers, wholesalers and marketing people behind this multimillion-dollar industry should be left to their own devices under sustainable quotas formulated by government using scientific expertise.

On Saturday, December 8, 2018, everything changed.

Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly announced that the allowable commercial catch would be increased from 6300 tonnes to 8000 tonnes and that the McGowan Government would quarantine 1385 tonnes of that increase for the domestic market.

The remaining 315 tonnes would be retained by the industry.

In a seemingly harmless media release, Kelly said the industry was on board because it agreed that ordinary West Australians should be able to afford lobster and restaurants should be able to offer the seafood without robbing customers blind.

Here is where that paper trail comes in and proves that the so-called agreement between the Western Rock Lobster Council and Kelly’s office was far from plain sailing and ran aground soon after it was made public.

On January 22, 2018, WRLC chief executive Matt Taylor wrote to Kelly querying a request for 600 crays to feed people at the previous month’s Mission Australia lunch.

“The council did not have access to 600 lobsters or the means to supply that quantity other than to buy them at retail price, which we estimated to be in excess of $20,000,” Taylor told Kelly in the letter.

Taylor, a Liberal Party man who lost the once safe seat of Bicton to Labor at the last State election, was expressing dismay that Kelly’s office gave an exemption for Kailis Bros to catch 750 lobsters outside the quota system to feed the charity event.

“The WRLC has learnt from this experience and the board is determined to deliver genuine solutions to your requests,” Taylor wrote.

That was a nice way of saying this new minister is a pain in the bum and the industry needs to find ways to work with him.

Taylor then proposed that 10 tonnes of lobster go into what is referred to as the Local Lobster Program, which was designed to make the product more affordable in WA and help tourism and hospitality operators.

“This would create a mechanism under the quota to work with government to donate lobster to charitable causes,” Taylor argued.

Jump to February 15, 2018, when Taylor sent an email to Kelly’s office. “Do you know when we can expect the minister’s letter response regarding rejecting the 10 tonne community allocation under the Local Lobster Program?” Taylor asked.

The relationship between the industry representatives and the minister was already on the rocks.

Another email was fired into Kelly’s office 13 days later.

“We are keen to understand the minister so we can help him achieve his objectives,” Taylor stressed. “To that end, the more insight contained in the letter, the more useful it will be to us moving forward.”

But it was not until March 6 that Kelly responded using words that made it clear their 10-tonne offer was nowhere near what he wanted.

“I am pleased that the WRLC has proposed an initiative intended to strengthen the industry’s connection to the West Australian community,” he said. Kelly was “encouraged” that the industry was thinking of ways to “further contribute” before finishing his short three paragraph response with an obvious shot across the bow.

“I believe further discussions are required to ensure any program delivers optimum flow of benefit to the community and the broader industry,” he said.

The “optimum flow” turned out to be a radical plan to make the Government a player in the rock lobster business. The WRLC quickly realised its members would not stomach it and the agreement was dead.

Now the Government is trying to salvage something from the wreckage.