Heatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Heatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:618;Page:13978] 
12.  
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
 to the  
Minister of Fisheries 
: Can he confirm existing marine-farming consent applications halted for over 2½ years by the aquaculture moratorium may now be thwarted in favour of the allocation to iwi of 20 percent of marine-farming space; if so does he regard the Government’s proposal as fair to everyone? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister of Fisheries) 
: 
 In answer to the first question no there was never any certainty that applications put on hold would either succeed or be incorporated into future aquaculture management areas. In answer to the second question yes the proposal is fair to everyone. In the words of the  
Dominion Post  
of 24 June “The proposed solution is … a fair compromise. The 20 per cent figure is a proxy for the ‘spatial’ component of marine farming in line with the 20 per cent of quota given to Maori in National’s September 1992 fisheries settlement.” 
Phil Heatley 
: Will those marine farmers who have put their business plans on hold for now 2½ years because of the moratorium and who now lose out in favour of the iwi quota of 20 percent receive any form of compensation from the Government; if not why not? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: The Government will be taking no steps to interfere in people’s private commercial decisions. 
Mahara Okeroa 
: Has the Minister received any reports of the industry’s response to the Government’s marine-farming proposals? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: Yes the industry has responded very positively. For example in Saturday’s  
Marlborough Express 
 the general manager of the Port Mussel Company Terry Schwass was quoted as saying: “The Government has picked the best options of the alternatives available and if it means we can move forward as an industry then it is a good start.” 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: How will the decision as to which iwi whanau or hapu receive the 20 percent allocation be made and how long does he envisage that will take? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: As Mr Eckhoff will be aware if he has read the background material that decision is yet to be made but the allocation proposal if Cabinet makes a final decision to proceed in this direction will be made by Te Ohu Kai Moana with the final approval of that process to be given by the Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of Maori Affairs. 
Phil Heatley 
: Does the Minister not consider a 2½ year moratorium to be interfering in commercial decisions and does the Minister concede that robbing Peter to pay Paul is inherently unfair to all currently involved in the aquaculture industry including iwi who themselves have had applications held up by the moratorium and iwi who are currently involved in the industry on their own merit and independent of a Government handout? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: No I consider the Government’s approach a sensible way in the first place to avoid poor use of our valuable environmental space—in this case marine space—and secondly no one is being robbed. This is a sensible compromise to complete the business that that member’s Government left unfinished in 1992.