Baldock Larry: Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
Baldock Larry: Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12392] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to support the first reading of the Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 3). United Future holds firm to the belief that processes that ensure that New Zealand’s fisheries resources are used in a sustainable manner need to be enshrined in legislation and committed to law. That is an important issue for our party and one of serious relevance and importance for us as a nation. This bill serves to organise and reinforce the quota management system specifically to achieve that end. 
Our fishing industry is a very important part of our economy. It has grown in export earnings from $17.9 million in 1975 to $1.4 billion in the year 2000 and it may have grown considerably since even that time. Domestic sales on the other hand have grown rather modestly from $114 million in 1987 to $130 million in 1999. I guess that is partly because so many people in New Zealand can catch their own fish and that is a very important thing for us as New Zealanders. But the export sales that we generate through our fishing industry are very important for our economy and for the employment of many New Zealanders. In 1975 4100 people were employed in the fishing industry. In 1999 10620 were employed directly in fishing and it is estimated that nearly 27000 fulltime-equivalent jobs were attributed directly to the fishing sector and through spin-off effects. 
While one select committee of this House is currently hearing submissions on the Maori Fisheries Bill to allocate the proceeds of the 1992 deed of settlement we can also today note that the health and sustainability of our fishing stocks are of vital importance to Maori in this country as well. This bill will do a lot to ensure the sustainability of our important fishing stocks. 
With almost $1.5 billion in export earnings fishing is very significant for our economy. United Future is concerned about how much more we could be earning by way of exports if we were not allowing so many joint ventures to operate in this country within our economic zone where they are able to lease our quota at prices that our local fishermen cannot compete with. Because the joint ventures pay very low wages and do not have to pay GST and local taxes they are able to pay for quota at a level that is unsustainable or uneconomic for our local fishermen. They take the catch from our waters and take it back to their shores where it is processed providing jobs that should be for New Zealanders. Then in many cases our fish is exported as product of New Zealand but it does not benefit our balance of payments or our balance of trade. In fact that fish has not seen the shores of this great country at all. That is of concern to us in United Future and we hope to see that concern addressed by this House at some stage in the near future. There is no point in our having a quota management system to protect the sustainability of our fish stock if it is being taken away from us progressively over the years through joint ventures. I do not believe that any other nations in the world are allowing their valuable resource to be harvested by other than their own citizens. 
This bill revives the Fisheries Act of 1996 and seeks improvements to our quota management system. We in United Future are proud of this quota management system. Although it is not perfect it is a very important part of the protection of our marine environment. I want to make this one point in general before I move on to the specific issues within this bill. When the Government states it has a plan to have 10 percent of our marine environment under protection in the near future surely we are missing the point that we already have a very good form of protection for our marine environment through the quota management system. To go into the issue of marine reserves as a means of further protection without recognising that we have protection through the quota management system is I believe flawed. The marine reserves are not going to provide the kind of protection that many believe they do and we need to be careful about how much of our marine environment we lock up in no-take reserves. 
With regard to this bill United Future welcomes the revisions that will come through it. The revisions to the Fisheries Act move to cement the primacy of the quota management system in New Zealand’s fisheries management regime. That is a prudent measure that will achieve among other things a couple of key improvements. It will improve the means of allocating quota by removing both the outdated catch history and the individual entitlement allocation mechanism. It will also rescind the redundant commercial fishing moratorium on non - quota management species which has been in place for over 10 years. Those measures will serve to enhance the process for identifying and introducing stocks into the quota management system and provide for much-needed revision of a moribund commercial fishing regime. They are progressive and practical. 
United Future commends the importance that throughout this bill is placed upon the need to manage risks. The revision of the Fisheries Act of 1996 with regard to changes to spat-catching permits will smooth the progress of a transition from the current spat-catching permit regime to the quota management system when greenshell mussels become subject to the quota management system later this year. That will eliminate the possibility of a troublesome duality of access regime once the greenshell mussels come under the quota management system. 
It is pleasing to note that this bill allows for the required flexibility in the allocation of additional entitlements to highly migratory species. This bill will allow for the extended coverage of the quota management system to permit the management of highly migratory species beyond our fisheries’ waters. Furthermore this bill will enable total allowable catches to be set for those highly migratory species in advance of national shares being allocated by a regional fisheries organisation where sustainability and management needs require it. That is a constructive and flexible approach for the allocation of additional catch entitlements for highly migratory species increases in allowable catch are realised through bilateral arrangements and the bill is revising the mechanism by which foreign licences that apply to highly migratory species have been authorised. That provides for rational and judicious management of important species such as bluefin tuna. 
United Future supports legislation to ensure that the date scampi is made subject to the quota management system is upheld. That will give certainty to the industry through the use of this legislation. United Future supports this legislation being referred to the select committee and we look forward to its reports in due course.