Abstract: An increasing number of fisheries within Australia are being managed under harvest strategies. These often aim to maintain stocks at or near a target reference point (TRP) and minimise the probability of stocks falling below a certain level or limit reference point (LRP). A number of sustainability classification schemes have been developed which designate stocks as sustainable if they are at or above the LRP. This can lead to a performance gap whereby some groups will consider a sustainable classification as sufficient evidence that a stock is well managed, even when the stock is not at or near levels targeted by management. Using the Status of Australian Fish Stocks, a national fisheries performance reporting platform, this study explores this ‘performance gap’, collating those species that contain an estimate of stock biomass relative to unfished biomass and comparing this against its assigned TRP. If an explicit TRP has not been defined, a proxy TRP will be assigned. This study will provide an assessment of Australian fisheries performance in terms of maintaining stocks at target levels rather than merely being sustainable.