Jones Shane: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20941. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 At least there is someone left in New Zealand who is prepared to use that not in the form of an epithet anyhow.  
Part 3 of the Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill (No 3) deals with our Maori entitlements. But I have to say that when we reform legislation that deals with Maori entitlements it is a portentous development when an amendment is moved upon an amendment. I want the Minister in the chair the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture to shortly take a small call and remove his hands from his pants. There is a great Maori proverb about that but for fear of lowering the tone of the Committee I will not go quite there. 
Simon Bridges 
: I thought it was Confucius. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Simon Bridges insists that I do. A rough English translation is “Keep the balls in the air”. That is what it sort of means. Maintain one’s political dexterity by managing multiple agendas but take one’s hands out of one’s pants. Te Ururoa Flavell agrees etc. Anyway let me come back to this. The Minister— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You’ve heard the one that Ross Robertson said in caucus one time? 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: No. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: This caucus has got too many balls in the fire. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Given that I am still on the road to redemption with my own caucus I will not continue that analogy from my faithful but feckless mentor Mr Mallard. He obviously contemplates a future for me that does not have a level of ascension. So I will avoid repeating what he said about the more liberal-minded doubting Thomases I call my friends. I only hope it is reciprocated one day. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Part 3. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: This is about Maoris. Maoris are from the universe right down to the bosom of the earth etc. However let me continue.  
As members recall when the Sealord deal was done there was a residual element that was not adequately addressed and that pertains to the obligations of the Crown in respect of marine farming. A 20 percent deal was entered into. I remember that being quite a sweet day because I was in the fortunate position of being the chair of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission at that time. Unfortunately as time has gone on what we thought we did did not actually turn out to be quite as user-friendly. I say that as the Minister has pointed out any Maori thing to do with resources will always require a great deal of tenacity when one gets to the allocation of these resources or these entitlements. Fortunately in clauses 58 and 59 there has been a fair degree of thought. I think the experience of the fisheries settlement has been applied to that portion of the bill. 
It is important when these areas are identified that we ensure that there is a fair representation of the available space to the iwi of the area—that they are not left with just some political or cultural form of the runt of the litter. Not all space is created equal in the eyes of the investor; some space is capable of generating better returns. I only hope that as the Minister grows in confidence and improves his adherence to good constitutional practice we will actually see more of the areas around the coastline through the aquaculture industry dedicated to settling not only Maori claims but Maori interests in a way that moves them into the modern end of aquaculture not stuck in the commodity traps etc. Maori are the owners of quota the applicants of customary mataitai seafood reserves participants in coastal planning and also now investors in aquaculture. It is important in getting the right balance between all of those that we do not clog the system with too much regulation or clog the system with people spending too much time litigating or arguing against each other. That will be inversely related to wealth creation. But broadly speaking we considered this during the course of the select committee consideration. A small number of improvements have been made but we support Part 3.