Roy Eric: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Roy Eric: Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7950] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 This is certainly a long speech—I started it about a fortnight ago. For those members who were not here or need a wee bit of refreshing due to the elapsed time I say that the Fisheries Act 1996 Amendment Bill adds a level of caution to the process of setting the total allowable catch. It gives the Minister of Fisheries the authority to act cautiously in the absence of information. 
When I introduced this topic in my speech the last time the House sat I was talking about the purposes and principles why this Act was a world first and why it is regarded as a very very useful tool and the best in the world for managing a very imprecise kind of science. I will make just a couple of points before I conclude. 
The first one is that the Primary Production Committee has largely been non-partisan in dealing with matters about fishing. In 1996 for example it was not very often that the Government representatives on the select committee even had equity in numbers let alone a majority yet the committee was able to come up with what is regarded as very fine legislation. That is the first point. 
The Minister Jim Anderton introduced the bill the other evening with the aplomb of someone who had been to the Clint Rickards charm school. He said he was introducing the bill and that it had to be reported back in an abbreviated time without giving us any reason for that. If the Minister wants our support he has to be a little bit more forthcoming in the information he gives us because I have a bit of concern about a couple of issues around that. 
If one looks at the bill one sees about five pages of notes and only five clauses. By the time one takes out the title commencement principal Act amended and information principles clauses there is not a lot that the bill does. I want to draw clause 5 to the attention of the House. In relation to consultation it states: “Any consultation carried out in respect of decisions that require consultation under the principal Act and that are to be made after the commencement of this Act is to be treated as complying with the consultation requirements …”. 
So in effect this is retrospective legislation. Why is it retrospective? If the Minister is facing actions over some decisions he made then he ought to share with us his particular problems. I do not know whether I am surmising things that are not correct but the retrospective part of this bill draws to my attention that this legislation might be being passed in just a little bit of unseemly haste given that we will be voting on having a shortened time to report back. 
 In principle we need as much information as we can get and there are a lot of things that this bill could do. It could for example encourage people to be much more accurate in reporting. It could actually bring on to the table an issue that some recreational fishers have some concerns about—that is the issue of reporting exactly what catch customary and recreational fishers get so that the Minister has that information when determining total allowable catch. A whole lot of things could permeate out from what is quite a brief bill. In principle National wants the fishery to be managed in the best possible way. To do that a cautious approach needs to be taken. But there are some issues that could arise that we have some concerns over. 
National will support this bill going to the select committee. We are interested in getting a more full explanation from the Minister and we are interested in hearing what the various sectors say about the whole process of this bill bearing in mind that currently out there for consultation at the same time is a document called  
Shared Fisheries 
. One has to say that sectors of the industry particularly the Maori interest are expressing real concern over what that sharing might mean. I just wonder whether there is any connection in tandem or otherwise implied or accidental with the retrospective nature of clause 5 and what that might mean for the whole of fisheries management. 
So I just alert the House to those matters and conclude by saying that we will certainly support this bill going to the select committee.