Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to make a comment in my speech today about the good work of the Primary Production Committee and particularly my colleague Todd Muller who has been working hard for oceans and fisheries on this front. I sat through quite a large amount of this select committee and one thing that became very clear to me—you know I'm more used to talking about Friesians Jerseys Herefords and a range of cattle than I am about the different types of fish so it was very much a Fishing 101" in regards to me. But what became very clear was that fishers do not want to deplete their fish stocks and why would they? Because actually that's their livelihood and that's how they earn their catch. I am a great lover of eating fish and I want them to continue to do that for a long time to come. So that was the first part of the bill that we were actually looking in. The last speaker spoke about how this is primary legislation and a lot of the work that needs to be done over the next while is in the secondary legislation—and that's the hardest thing as a legislator when you put a bill in place and you look at what it means and then you know that you let it go for regulations to be developed around exactly what's going to happen here. The hardest thing is that where the regulations come in place it is actually all designed to describe and put the numbers and the manner of what happens to the fish that these fishers do not want to catch. So it's not something that these fishers would deliberately do in terms of catching the fish that they don't want to catch but by virtue of the process that they use that's what happens when they go on a fishing expedition. So it's really hard to actually I think pinpoint exactly how this will play out in reality. So the bill is not perfect and there are elements of its design that will continue to be criticised by most if not all stakeholders. And I guess the other point to make in all of this is that there are two distinct discrete groups of stakeholders. One is the commercial fishers and the other group of stakeholders is the recreational fishers who all have to live in harmony in largely the same space of the ocean. And so while some fishing waters are deeper than others there is quite a bit of tension between both groups wanting to maintain the outcomes for their leisure and for the industry. So it's really important to note. It's fair to say that the bill is not perfect. There are elements of its design that will continue to be criticised probably by both sides—if not all stakeholders. But I think the biggest thing from National's perspective is that we're watching this very carefully. We were hugely disappointed that just after the second reading and just hours before the committee of the whole House stage Minister Parker decided to introduce Supplementary Order Paper 257 which removed part of the bill that would have enabled streamlining of the process for setting the total allowable catch for a fish stock. So that was really disappointing because it was a good select committee. It was a select committee that was very good right across the parties in terms of discussion and it was really disappointing to get to that point and have that thrown away at the committee stage. So there's a commitment here from National that when National's in Government in 2023 and the transition process has begun we will closely monitor which parts of the bill are working and which parts aren't and we'll seek to improve those parts. We will be watching carefully and I know Todd Muller has had a lot of close interaction with the industry. I've had some. Some good fishing goes off the coast of my electorate in Taranaki and Raglan and other places. And I think it was very clear that the last-minute changes were made here—and it was even stated by the Green Party today that they'd put pressure on the Minister to scratch these provisions and he'd folded to it. National is disappointed about that but having said that we will support the bill today and continue to monitor what happens beyond its passing. Thank you."