Shirley Ken: General Debates 
Shirley Ken: General Debates 
[Volume:614;Page:10378] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Earlier this week this Labour-led Government announced its intention to extend the moratorium on marine licences for a further 9 months from March of next year. As we all know statutory moratoriums are an admission of failure by any Government. They are a political failure they reflect indecision and they create uncertainty—and that is certainly what this decision has done to the New Zealand aquaculture industry. 
In November 2001 this Government’s Minister of Fisheries Pete Hodgson promised new enabling legislation within 12 months yet here we are 2 years later with a moratorium in place and now the Government admits failure and announces it will extend the moratorium for a further 9 months until 31 December 2004. Nothing can be more uncertain for any sector than to be facing a moratorium where there is no decision no framework and no policy—having instead an inept Government that just cannot make up its mind and does not know what it wants to do. That is a disaster for any country. 
In November 2001 the Minister described the existing legislation as outdated over-complicated and dysfunctional. Here we are 2 years later with it still in place still dysfunctional still outdated and still over-complicated—and he has not done anything about it. That is a failure by him as a Minister. It is a failure by this Labour Government Cabinet to address the situation and the country bears the consequences. 
The Government promised all manner of things. We were promised a framework to enable greater benefit to be obtained from coastal space without undermining existing rights. It sounded great. We had a promise to create an environment whereby aquaculture could make a greater contribution to the New Zealand economy and to clearly define to the public where marine farming would not occur. All of that has been promised but none of it has been delivered. 
I feel rather passionately supportive of the aquaculture industry. I actually held a warrant in 1990 as the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. I think I was the only Minister who has ever had a warrant for aquaculture. Mike Moore the then Prime Minister was very supportive of aquaculture and was determined to get it up and going. He realised—[ 
Interruption 
] What happened to Mike? A very good question because that Labour Government understood what development and progress were all about but no the Helen Clark brigade are now in power and they do not like things like development aquaculture wealth creation and prosperity—they do everything to close it down. 
The aquaculture industry in New Zealand is under-rated. It is much bigger than most people realise. Few realise that last year mussels alone earned $186 million for this country. Mussels alone earned more than the wine industry did in Marlborough. 
Rodney Hide 
: Is that right? 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: Yes mussels earned more in export dollars than the wine industry. That is not denigrating wine—Marlborough wine is splendid wine but the mussel industry is even more successful. There is tremendous potential for sea cages with tuna snapper the caging of rock lobster and paua—we have farming developments there with meat shell and pearls. The marine farming industry has identified that given the right environment it could be earning $2 billion for this country by 2020. What did this Government do when the industry is roaring to get going and wants a legislative framework so that it can expand and have that investment? It just increased and extended its moratoriums because it does not know what to do. It has no idea—none whatsoever. 
It blames the foreshore and seabed issue but let us remind ourselves that that issue is of its own making. The Prime Minister and the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations came out after the Court of Appeal decisions and said that they asserted Crown ownership and would legislate if necessary. Then they immediately backed off that position—right from day 1—and they have been scurrying backwards ever since. Instead they invented this nebulous concept of the “public domain” that no one owns. There are no property rights and there is no guidance. The moratorium is now in place and the industry is suffering badly.