Heatley Phil: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
Heatley Phil: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17732] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I also rise to discuss in detail clauses 54 and 55 in Part 3 “Conservation Act 1987”. Members will recall that this legislation is to be cut into seven different bills. One of them will be in relation to the Conservation Act 1987 specifically which is represented by Part 3 of this bill. Clause 55(2) proposes to substitute section 26ZG(2)(c) of the Conservation Act which provides: “(c) The taking holding possession sale or disposal of any freshwater fish under the authority of the Fisheries Act 1983 the Marine Farming Act 1971 or any regulations made under either of those Acts.” The new section 26ZG(2)(c) will provide: “(c) the taking holding possession sale or disposal of freshwater fish under the authority of—(i) the Fisheries Act 1983 the Marine Farming Act 1971 or any regulations made under either of those Acts; or (ii) the registration of a fish farmer under Part 9A of the Fisheries Act 1996.” 
That is what this clause does. It repeals those provisions relating to the taking holding possession sale or disposal of freshwater fish and replaces them with those provisions in clause 55. Why this is of interest to the marine farming and aquaculture sector is simply that the Fisheries Act 1983 the Marine Farming Act and a third Act the Fisheries Act 1996 all impinge on freshwater fish which may or may not be farmed may be wild or may be somehow in an aquaculture business. All those Acts impinge on those species. 
So under this reform bill there is a bringing together of the taking holding possession sale or disposal regulations under that one provision. Those reforms bring it all together. Having it spread out amongst the Fisheries Act 1983 the Marine Farming Act the regulations under those Acts and also Part 9A of the Fisheries Act 1996 made it all the more confusing. This is why we have general support from the industry on this. We have support from regional councils the Department of Conservation those on the Primary Production Committee and officials as well. There was no argument on it. It is nice to come across a provision in this reform bill where there is no controversy and there are no last-minute changes. As the Hon David Carter pointed out it is something we can indeed agree with. 
It is interesting that through the course of this debate the Department of Conservation has come under a fair bit of flack because of the amount of interference that it can have in marine farming under this reform legislation. We know that it can effectively veto the allocation of marine-farming space at the last hurdle if the department’s officials do not succeed as objectors to the consent being granted or succeed as objectors to the original aquaculture management area. So after the department has a go at the aquaculture management area that the regional council is keen to set up and it fails and after having a go at the resource consent that the individual farmer applies for and it also fails there the department can then have another slap at getting a veto in the end.