Davis Kelvin: Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement (Regional Agreements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement (Regional Agreements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9697] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 Tuatahi maku hei tautoko i nga mihi kua tukua i roto i te Whare nei ki to tatau whaea a Lady Raiha. Kua tae mai nga korero hei tona wa ka hikinga ka kawea atu ki tona ukaipo i roto o Ngati Manu. Na reira e te whaea Raiha e moe e moe e te rangatira. 
[ 
Firstly I support the acknowledgments expressed in the House to our matriarch Lady Raiha. News has arrived that she will be taken in time from where she is lying in state to her motherland in Ngati Manu. Therefore rest in peace the matriarch Raiha rest 
.] 
It is probably coincidental that today on the day that we talk about the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement (Regional Agreements) Amendment Bill I was given a pottle of Bluff oysters. The problem with giving just one pottle of Bluff oysters to a Maori when he is surrounded by colleagues such as Shane Jones Mita Ririnui and Parekura Horomia is that— 
Hekia Parata 
: You get a sniff. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: One gets a sniff but that is about all. But not wanting to be accused of not sharing with my colleagues I did whisper out to them. When they did not come running I decided that they were not interested. 
The Labour Party supports this bill. In essence it is a bill that helps to allocate 20 percent of the aquaculture area to iwi. I believe that this is a way forward for Maoridom. I have spoken before about the fact that Maoridom has always relied on aquaculture or kai moana as we say for sustenance and now it is only appropriate that we move from the traditional gathering of seafood into doing this as a business. This bill helps Maori to move ahead in terms of the aquaculture industry. 
I look forward to the day when Maori can help to expand this industry. I believe that we are looking to expand it to over a billion dollars for the economy by 2025 and I look forward to that. I have travelled extensively overseas and being a connoisseur of seafood I always try the local delicacies wherever I go. I have to say that New Zealand seafood is second to none. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Been to Japan? 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: I have to say I have not been to Japan so I cannot comment on the comparison there. I do recall going to Canada and having a meal of what I was told was scallops which were in fact stamped fish flaps. To me that is not seafood whatsoever. 
The purpose of the proposed amendment is to allow the Crown to deliver on its contemporary Treaty of Waitangi obligations in relation to commercial aquaculture by recognising the problems with the existing settlement framework and the progress for discharging the Crown’s pre-commencement obligation. The proposed change allows a practical solution to the issues without renegotiating the underlying intent of the settlement. 
Going back to Maori and the aquaculture industry there are technical difficulties and bureaucratic red tape that hinder the expanse and development of the aquaculture industry. I would like to raise again the issue of a friend of mine who is an oyster farmer in the very far north. He has to post a bond of $9000 per hectare for his oyster farm. He has 13 hectares and that equates to something like $117000 that he has to post up front before he even starts making a dollar from his farm. That sort of red tape hinders his development and his desire to progress his oyster farm. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What’s the bond for? 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: The bond is for the clean-up if he ever has to abandon the farm. I am not sure how the regional council came to the sum of $9000. He should count himself lucky in that it started at $22000 a hectare. He was totally unable to come up with that sum of money. In the far north there have been only two instances of people walking off their farms. One was the Waikare Inlet where the conditions were totally outside of the control of the farmers in that there was supposed effluent spilling over into the Waikare River. There was one other incident which I am not sure of. It is hard to justify the extent of that bond and there could be better ways I feel to make sure that we cover the need to have some sort of contingency fund if oyster farms are abandoned but that that fund is not a hindrance to their development. Kia ora.