24 January 2002
Media Release
Fishing Industry Supports Restructure of Marine Policing Services
Tasmania's $258 million commercial fishing industry welcomes today's announcement by Police and Public Safety Minister David Llewellyn to restructure some marine policing services in this state.
The Chief Executive of TFIC Bob Lister said "TFIC has made several representations to the review of marine policing services since 2000 with a view to improving the level of effectiveness of both marine enforcement and search and rescue.
We had been concerned for some time that not enough attention was being given to local marine policing and sea safety in coastal areas with an apparent priority towards general policing duties.
Today's decision to deploy five additional marine police officers to be stationed at Strahan, Stanley, Launceston, St Helens and Orford will provide additional police strengths and flexibility to these mainly coastal areas with an increased local emphasis on protecting fisheries resources and the long term sustainability of our industry.
All the new positions will be supervised by the local Divisional Inspector who will be responsible to a District Commander and there will be operational benchmarks to ensure marine policing is given the appropriate level of attention.
Cooperation between the Districts and Marine Police Rescue Services will be enhanced to facilitate an appropriate level of resources for major operations.
Today's announcement follows on from previous decisions to implement a marine policing training programme from 2001 and to upgrade police assets around the state, including improvements to police residences.
Additionally, the current programme to replace marine vessels and equipment will also ensure that police are equipped with appropriate multi-purpose vessels for effective marine policing, surveillance and enforcement along with search and rescue activities" Bob Lister said.
Bob Lister can be contacted on 03 6224 2332 or 0408 146 960
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