In 2010, the Australian Fisheries Managers Forum (AFMF) listed fisheries access and allocation as one of the top priority policy issues to be addressed. Subsequently, FRDC formed a working group to examine possible approaches to access and allocation issues to assist fisheries managers as they undertook their associated policy development around allocation matters. They produced a report on the principles and guidelines for fisheries resource access and allocation, highlighting impediments to optimising fisheries resource access and allocation in Australia and the RD&E issues requiring investment.
Seven years on, there has been a lot of developments in this area in the various jurisdictions. To assist guide FRDC's future RD&E investment on these issues, the Board requested a review of the current state of fishery resouce access and allocation across the various jurisdictions.

Participation of Industry and recreational members in the stock assessment process is vital and there is a real need for succession planning in MACs and RAGs. Their input provides important observations and anecdotal information that can help to interpret trends in the data, improving the quality and completeness of stock assessments and recommendations made. Furthermore, it can foster a better understanding of the science behind stock assessments, and create more support for buy-in of subsequent management policies. Without Industry and recreational sector participation, catch and effort data would be used with only a limited understanding of the factors that influence these data, beyond what is collected in logbooks and by observer programs. Participation, however, is more effective if they have a working knowledge of the data collected and processes and models used to assess fish stocks. This will lead to more efficient, beneficial, informative participation in the stock assessment process, and overall, better stock assessment and management of the fishery. Industry and recreational understanding of harvest strategies and stock assessment processes will also improve the level of co-management that can be achieved in a fishery.

Despite improvements in the assessment and harvest strategy process over the last decade, their remains a great deal of industry frustration / misunderstanding about how this translates into management decisions. Having spoken to many industry members during this time, we know that much (but not all) of this frustration is a direct result of lack of knowledge about assessment techniques and assumptions and how these interplay with the harvest strategy. Once they ahve acquired this knowledge, Industry members, with their extensive experience on the water, become extremely valuable members of RAGs / MACs and can help improve the assessment and management process and the understanding of other members.