TOTAL RESOURCE RENTS OF AUSTRALIA

State/ City Taxi licences Annual value @ $25,000
Sydney, NSW 4,458 111,450,000
All Victoria 5,181 129,525,000
Adelaide, SA 1,000 25,000,000
All Western Australia 1,474 36,850,000
South East Queensland 2,289 57,225,000
National Total 14,402 360,050,000
Table 5
Fishing licences
Over 90% of Australia’s most valuable fishing licences – bluefin tuna – are owned by Port Lincoln fishermen. These were freely
granted when compulsory licences were introduced in the mid 1990s.
It was reported in the early 1990s that ‘one of the richest of today’s tuna kings, Tony Santic, reportedly sold 337 tonnes of his
quota for $72 million, or $214,000 a tonne, to Melbourne businessman Victor Smorgon’. 105
Bluefin tuna fishing has been honed into a fine art. Over just a few weeks, schools of fish are tracked by plane. Tug boats then
net and haul the catch back to huge fish pens. The tuna then spend the next few months being fattened up. Once prepared,
packaged and sent to markets such as Japan, a single fish often sells for $10,000. The record in 2010 was $736,000. 106 Over $1.6
million was paid for a single bluefin tuna in 2012. 107
Victorian abalone licences were virtually given away in the 1960s for as little as $6. In 2009-10 the industry reported $23 million
in production. 108 The 71 licences now cost $30,000-$40,000 to renew. 109
In 2011-12, Victorian abalone royalties totalled $240,076. 110 This equates to a 1% resource rent.
In the drive towards free market efficiencies, ‘developing fishery permits’ were made available for jelly fishing in an effort to
‘create a market’ in Victoria. At a one-off cost of $11,000, the early movers who take up such a permit are first in line to gain a
licence and thus attain property rights. 111 While this market has not kicked off as expected, the issue is that jellyfish are gifts of
nature. There is no recompense for society over time if the world’s fastest carbon-consuming compound is located in the DNA
sequence of such a fish. If this were to occur, all jellyfish licences would immediately escalate in value.
Economic rent, the free lunch, would be handed to those privileged licence holders.
“An annual licensing fee based on the market value and volume of the fish caught is ‘closed
loop’ economics.”
The Northern Prawn Fishery is another of our most valuable fisheries. 112 Licence holders pay administration fees in just the
hundreds of dollars for government management of a multi-million dollar resource. In effect, taxes from blue collar workers in
the manufacturing industry pay for National Parks officers to protect these ‘private’ resources. Additional advantages include the
34
105 http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/fishy-behaviour-doesnt-worry-the-millionaires-of-port-lincoln/2006/08/18/
1155408020865.html?page=fullpage
106 http://www.publicintegrity.org/node/7817/2010/11/07/2335/overview-black-market-bluefin
107 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9782074/Bluefin-tuna-sells-for-record-1-million.html
108 http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries/commercial-fishing/commercial-fish-production-2011
109 Personal correspondence with Victorian Department of Primary Industries 05/02/2013
110 100 Letter from Minister Walsh 04/02/2013 ref: MW004269
111 Personal correspondence with Victorian Department of Primary Industries 01/02/2013
112 http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Nothern-Prawn-Fishery-Case-Study.aspx