Balancing short term impacts and long term interests in fisheries management decisions

In the latest of a series of merits review decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning the correct construction to be given to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority's (AFMA's) statutory objective to ensure that the exercise of the precautionary principle is 'pursued', the AAT has affirmed the decision under review as having being made reasonably and correctly in pursuit of the principle. This article explains the reason for the AAT's recent decision in Craig Justice v Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Executive Director, Department of Fisheries Western Australia (hereafter Justice v AFMA) which affirmed AFMA's implementation of the consultative approach required by legislation and provided further support for AFMA's interpretation and implementation of its statutory requirement to manage fisheries in a manner consistent with the precautionary principle.