Eckhoff Gerrard: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11648] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 The commencement of the aquaculture industry is capturing the attention of virtually everybody in this country who is interested in industry and especially in the furtherance of a potential multibillion-dollar industry. I repeat: a multibillion-dollar industry. The commencement date is hugely important in terms of when the industry can start to get up to speed yet here we are in the Committee of the whole House debating whether we should continue with the moratorium. As the ACT party and my colleagues in the National Party have said this is a nonsense. 
There are plenty of regional councils that want to get on with the job. For example why does this legislation not allow the Otago Regional Council—Otago is the region the Minister comes from—to get on with it. He knows that Graeme Martin and the people in the Otago Regional Council are up and ready to run. They want to start. But people in the aquaculture industry in the Otago region off the Otago coast or on the foreshore are told they must wait. I look forward to contributions from the Otago members telling us and the aquaculture and marine industries in our region why this legislation will stymie them for many more months to come. 
The commentary on the bill states that the Labour Government has been advised that “only a single extension is envisaged”. The word “envisaged” is very very interesting. The commentary does not state there will be “only a single extension end of story”; it states “envisaged”. So what is the likelihood of another extension to the moratorium occurring when we come close to the period it is supposed to end which is somewhere around the end of December? I suspect that we will be back in the House towards the end of this year close to Christmas time debating whether we should apply yet another extension because of other regional councils such as those in Canterbury and Auckland not having got up to speed. They should have got up to speed but they have not. Yet again this potentially multibillion-dollar industry is being set aside is being held up while the Government and the officials try to catch up. I ask again: why can this bill not allow for those regional councils that so wish to grasp the nettle and act as an indicator of how successful or otherwise they can be? Instead this Government has thrown a driftnet around the industry—it has ensnared the good the bad and the ugly if one likes all in one—and said: “You will do nothing until we say it’s time to move.” 
We note from the commentary that the Government has to resolve the foreshore and seabed issue enact the aquaculture reform legislation and implement plans for aquaculture management areas by regional councils. Does anybody really think that those councils that were slow to move in the past will suddenly rush out in top gear and have their plans ready by December this year? Who in his or her right mind believes we will resolve the foreshore and seabed issue in a few short months? We know how slowly the machinery of Government moves. So I say again that without doubt prior to Christmas we will again be debating whether we should give the moratorium another 6 months or possibly another 6 months after that. 
I spoke to a member of the Parliamentary Service who informed me of having just recently invested in aquaculture in Australia shifting resources money and desire to be involved in this industry to Australia. The reason is that that person cannot wait.