Benson-Pope David: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Benson-Pope David: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:11736] 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister of Fisheries) 
: 
 I move  
That the Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium) Act to extend the moratorium on new applications for aquaculture activities in New Zealand’s coastal marine area until 31 December 2004. The bill also reinstates coastal permits that have lapsed while approval was being sought for marine farm permits that are granted under the Fisheries Act for the sites and prevents existing permits from lapsing for the same reason. The bill extends the time limit that is currently provided for the Minister of Conservation to respond to requests for early uplift of the moratorium. The current limit has proved difficult to administer. 
The moratorium was initiated to provide time for aquaculture law reform legislation to be passed and for council planning to be initiated. The main reforms will provide greater certainty for applicants and submitters making it clear where aquaculture can occur and where it is prohibited. The reforms will also enable councils to look at all the sustainability issues related to aquaculture including fisheries in an integrated way. Therefore councils will be better able to deal with all environmental effects and provide greater certainty for the aquaculture industry and the wider community. 
The current moratorium has ensured that councils have not been flooded with marine farm applications in a so-called race for space prior to the new legislation coming into effect. However those reforms have not been progressed as quickly as expected and will not be in place before expiry of the current moratorium at midnight on 24 March 2004. Although that delay in the reform process is unfortunate regional councils have continued to develop aquaculture management areas during the moratorium. The delay will also allow time to clarify issues related to the foreshore and seabed and supports the sentiment of the select committee which emphasised that: “The new legislation needs to be sound and to give some certainty about the wider regime governing planning in coastal marine areas.” 
 There is an urgent problem concerning the lapsing of consents that is peculiar to the current Resource Management Act and Fisheries Act dual permitting regime. This bill fixes that problem. The situation will not be a problem in the future as the aquaculture reform legislation will remove that dual permitting regime and replace it with a more comprehensive Resource Management Act regime. The problem arises only for some of the coastal permits that are still being processed under the existing dual Resource Management Act and Fisheries Act 1983 regime. 
The problem arises because section 125 of the Resource Management Act provided that any resource consent would lapse unless the resource consent was given effect—for example if a marine farm area was developed within 2 years of the date of commencement of the consent. Under the Fisheries Act permits for marine farms can be granted only to farmers with Resource Management Act consents and when this process blows out to more than 2 years there is a problem with consents lapsing. There are currently around 200 coastal permits that have not yet had their applications for a Fisheries Act permit considered and about 100 applications for sites where the coastal permit has lapsed before the Fisheries Act permit has been decided. Failure to remove the lapsing problem would cause the industry to suffer large losses would hamper planning in Marlborough in particular and would create unnecessary conflict and disruption. 
In order to resolve that issue the bill provides that the making of an application for a marine farming permit or a spat-catching permit under the Fisheries Act 1983 will be deemed to be giving effect to the coastal permit. These provisions would apply only to coastal permits for marine farming granted between 1 June 1995 and 1 August 2003. The bill will also revive consents for aquaculture that have already technically lapsed. 
The provision relating to lifting the moratorium by Order in Council in specific areas now requires the Minister to make a recommendation within 40 working-days of receiving a request from the relevant regional council. It is likely that the extension of the moratorium will result in more use being made of the early expiry provisions. Those provisions are an important part of the transitional arrangements to the new aquaculture regime. Early expiry provides a route for councils to fold existing planning provisions where these are suitable into plans in the new regime. They also provide for the release of space for development. 
This bill allows time for the main reforms to be completed when there is more clarity around issues in the marine environment. To do that the bill extends the moratorium until the end of December 2004. It also reinstates permits lapsed due to problems in the dual permitting required for aquaculture development and extends the time frame for decisions by the Minister of Conservation with regard to the early expiry of the moratorium. 
I assure the House that although I can give no ironclad commitment because of other factors occurring contemporaneously I will give every endeavour to ensuring no consideration will be necessary for any further extension of this moratorium. I commend the bill to the House.