Heatley Phil: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Heatley Phil: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17520] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 Last week the National Party through me made a commitment to supporting this legislation going to the Primary Production Committee. At that time I mentioned to members of this House that National was concerned that we secure in the legislation through this amendment practices within the Ministry of Fisheries that have always been done when assessing fish stocks. 
The reason why we saw that as being important was that recently there was a court case regarding the orange roughy fishery. Challengers to the Ministry of Fisheries won a court case against it. There was some argument as to whether the competence or the lack of competence of ministry staff had lost the court case or whether a matter of law had meant that the Ministry of Fisheries lost the court case. Regardless of what the cause was the National Party is convinced—along with the fishing industry a large number of fishing interests Crown Law the Labour-Progressive Government Minister Jim Anderton and the Ministry of Fisheries—that we need to clarify the law by providing a clearer distinction to the Minister of what information is required to make healthy fish stock decisions. So we will be supporting this legislation going to the select committee. 
There should be no confusion in this House and there should be no confusion amongst the public and certainly amongst concerned fishers that this amendment bill in any way relates to the fisheries legislation affecting section 10 of the Fisheries Act 1996. The legislation we have before us today which National supports affects section 13 only which is to do with the information required when making fisheries management decisions. This has no bearing whatsoever on section 10 of the Fisheries Act 1996 which was the subject of another piece of legislation brought into the House by the fisheries Minister some time ago. That legislation did not secure the support of National the fishing industry or even in the end the Ministry of Fisheries. The drafters acknowledged that they had been in error in terms of drafting that section 10 legislation. 
To clarify the Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill (No 2) is concerned with section 13 of the Fisheries Act. It is not concerned at all with section 10 and it does not address any issues relating to that section. Section 10 is about when the Minister takes a precautionary approach when he or she does not have information on fish stocks. Therefore the Minister may cut catch levels based on that precautionary approach. 
This bill relates to section 13 which is about the information required to make fisheries management decisions. We know that the Minister in charge of the bill Jim Anderton kept fishing interests closely informed and I believe that the Ministry of Fisheries worked very closely with fishing interests in putting together this legislation on section 13. We applaud that and we certainly thank the Ministry of Fisheries for keeping National Party members informed of its progress. We did not want to see any argument when it came to the drafting of this legislation; that would signal to us quite clearly that there had been a change in the intent of the original legislation which of course we would not support. We were always behind securing the original intent not changing the intent. 
National members will be interested at the select committee to hear what invited submitters say about the bill as drafted. Should they raise any significant concerns—should there be any angst about the legislation as drafted—National MPs will be very concerned indeed because we understood that it was a team approach from the Ministry of Fisheries and fishing interests that brought this bill to the House in this form. There is no doubt in our mind that the current Act is not explicitly clear. We agreed to clarification not to change. 
National will support the legislation going to the select committee and furthermore we will support the inviting of submitters to partake in an efficient select committee process given that the Minister of Fisheries has to make decisions on hundreds of fish stocks by 1 October. National would be the last party to undermine the quota management system by stalling this legislation which would mean that the Minister could not make those decisions by 1 October. I am hoping that Hone Harawira will also see the wisdom of doing that and indeed will follow National Party members in supporting this legislation. 
I commend this legislation to the House. I acknowledge the work that was done by the ministry officials but more particularly the work that was done by outside fishing interests who spend more time on the sea and have more knowledge of how fish stocks are working on a day-to-day basis. We certainly value their input. We will support this bill going to the select committee. Thank you.