Chadwick Steve: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chadwick Steve: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:19010. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Minister of Conservation) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister of Fisheries 
: I move  
That the Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a second time 
. This bill amends the Fisheries Act 1996 and it is particular to section 13 of that Act. The provisions of the bill address an issue pointed out by the High Court in February 2008 in a case reviewing decisions on total allowable catch for the area 1 stock of orange roughy. The court pointed out that the practice of the past two decades in the management of many of New Zealand’s fisheries has been inconsistent with the current wording of the Act. This effectively disabled the key management measure for the majority of our fisheries—that is the setting of total allowable catches under section 13 of the Act.  
This short bill addresses the problem identified by the court and restores the ability of the Minister of Fisheries to set catch limits for all quota management system fish stocks. It introduces new subsection 2A into section 13 of the Act. This new subsection will enable catch limit decisions to be made for quota management stocks where full quantitative estimates are not available for the current biomass of the stock and the biomass that would enable the maximum sustainable yield to be taken. It is intended to preserve the balance of consideration in setting total allowable catches under the Act that has prevailed in recent years providing for the utilisation of fisheries while ensuring sustainability. It replicates as much as possible the language and concepts of the existing provisions as they have been applied to date.  
The new provision will not only be used where quantitative estimates of biomass as required by the existing provision are not available at reasonable cost effort or time; it also requires that decisions must not be inconsistent with the objective of managing fish stocks at or above a level that can produce a maximum sustainable yield. In short the new provision restores the ability of the Minister of Fisheries to set sustainable catch limits for all fish stocks and allows the management of fishing to continue as it has in the past.  
The Primary Production Committee reported this bill back to the House with minor amendment only to cross-references under clause 4(2) that correct a drafting oversight. Essentially the committee agrees that this bill does what it sets out to do and that it is important to focus on this task alone. Submissions made to the committee asked for a variety of additions and alterations to be made to the bill. However anything that departs from the simple task of restoring the ability of the Minister to set total allowable catches for all stocks with the best available information will inevitably be controversial and delay this important bill and it is important that this bill is passed into law this week.  
The Minister of Fisheries has total allowable catch advice put before him at this very time every year and in March so that fisheries may be managed sustainably. The current decisions need to be finalised and gazetted by 1 October if they are to have effect in the coming fishing year. The need to expedite this bill is not to deny the work of many of the submissions made to the select committee. The Fisheries Act could of course be improved and a forthcoming review of the Act has already been signalled by the Ministry of Fisheries. The ideas for new approaches put forward in submissions will be taken forward into that wider view of legislation.  
This bill contains provisions that will correct the deficiencies in the Fisheries Act 1996 that were identified recently by the High Court and it will allow our most important fisheries management decisions to be made in a timely manner consistent with practice in recent years. This will restore the ability of the management system to fulfil the purpose of the Act which is to provide for utilisation of fisheries resources while ensuring sustainability. I commend the bill to the House.