Fenton Darien: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17286. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARIEN FENTON (Labour): It is a pleasure to take a call in this second reading and to register Labour’s support for this bill the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill as we hopefully begin to draw to a close a very shameful period of worker exploitation in New Zealand waters. It is to the Government’s credit that a ministerial inquiry was established to investigate and find solutions to this stain on our nation’s economy and reputation. It is also to its credit that it adopted the recommendations of the inquiry and went further with the requirement in this bill to make it compulsory that every fishing vessel operating in our waters including in our exclusive economic zone is flagged as a New Zealand ship from 1 May 2016 and as such will come under the full jurisdiction of New Zealand law. This brings New Zealand’s treatment of foreign fishing vessels into line with the rest of the developed world. The only other countries that do not requirereflagging are Namibia and Brazil.It is also to the credit of the Minister for Primary Industries that as he has outlined tonight he will be introducing a Supplementary Order Paper at the Committee stage tofirm the bill up again by removing the majority of exemptions proposed by the Primary Production Committee that would risk undermining the intent and effectiveness of this legislation. I was not part of the select committee process but I have taken a great deal of interest in this issue in my former role as labour spokesperson and immigration spokesperson. Indeed I have met with some of these workers over time and also the people who are caring for them. I know that the members on the select committee will have heard from many of the people who helped expose what has been described as modern-day slavery in our waters.I just want to pay my respects and acknowledge them if I may. I acknowledge DarrenCoulston who has relentlessly advocated for crews’ wages to this day including the unpaid minimum wages still owed to families of the drowned seamen from theOyang 70; Glenn Simmons and Dr Christina Stringer who produced that now infamous report calledNot in New Zealand’s waters surely? Labour and human rights abuses aboard foreign fishing vessels; the Maritime Union and the faith-based organisations that have taken abused foreign crew under their wing when there was no Government support or agency willing to listen or to help; and the Service and Food Workers Union which has campaigned for years on this issue on the basis that New Zealand jobs are affected and undermined by this scandal and has campaigned for a value-added approach to our fishing industry as opposed to this low-cost model of foreign charter vessels.I also want to pay my respects to Peter Talley. It is not often that I do that but Peter and Michael Talley have been adamantly supporting thereflagging proposals for some time. They have been very outspoken against foreign charter vessels and their abuse saying that they have no place in New Zealand waters. They have been great advocates for change and I really acknowledge them for that. There are many others and we should be grateful to them because it is not acceptable to Labour or I am sure to the rest of the House that we have an industry that has been surviving on the exploitation of vulnerable migrants working in conditions that no one in New Zealand would accept.I also want to pay tribute to the many Indonesian and Korean fishing crews and fishing crews from other nations who have been brave enough to walk off their ships to tell their stories of abuse sexual and physical assault inhumane punishment critical underpayment of wages and in some cases debt-bondage. We have not treated them that well. Some who came off the ships were deported immediately—mercilessly I would have to say. Those who were able to remain had to rely on the charity of the community. For many of these crew little has changed since the ministerial inquiry. Most of them still wait to be paid what they were legally entitled to under New Zealand law at the time which was the minimum wage plus $2 an hour and that includes as I mentioned the families of the six seamen who were drowned in theOyang 70 sinking in 2010. The coroner’s inquest into that sinking found that systemic failure of ship management and safety practices together with routine violations of maritime rules and seafaring practice were responsible for what led up to the sinking. The coroner also criticised aspects of New Zealand’s ship safety management process and that is something that Maritime New Zealand needs to front up to.There is no doubt that there was a systemic failure to ensure standards and processes put in place by the 2006 code of practice which has been discussed tonight which required minimum wage plus a premium to be paid and New Zealand conditions to be observed. Rotten practices have been permitted to take hold in this industry and I put a lot of that down not to the good intentions of politicians who have tried to address this through codes and now legislation but to a lack of enforcement by under-resourced agencies—immigration labour and fishing.DarrenCoulston told the select committee that he estimated the amount of underpayment of wages to the tens of thousands of crew on foreign chartered vessels as being in excess of $200 million. Those workers still have not been paid and they still hope for justice today. You do have to ask what has happened to those missing millions. Although the Government kept a very small number of crew in New Zealand to make submissions to the inquiry it quickly sent them home once that was completed. We have heard the stories of what has happened when they have gone home. Their families have been threatened. They have been unable to find other work yet there is money owed to them that we have not been able to recover.I do not believe that any Government agency is working to deal with this redress and in my opinion passing this bill will not put an end to those injustices until every cent owed to these fishers is recovered and paid. So although we support the bill and it is critical to addressing the appalling human rights abuses safety concerns and issues around the illegal dumping of fish from these foreign chartered vessels we do have one or two things that we would have liked to see. The bill stops short of securing opportunities for Kiwi workers and Kiwi jobs. Foreign chartered vessels will still be able to use entirely foreign crew which will continue to see New Zealand workers shut out. Labour’s policy on this has always been clear. We would encourage maximum participation by New Zealanders in our fisheries and seafood processing moving towards a minimum of 50 percent New Zealand crew on any vessel fishing within New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone.We are also questioning the Government’s decision to delay the introduction ofreflagging for 4 years to allow foreign chartered vessels and their partners to come to terms with the changes. A 4-year transition is a very long time and it gives a lot of room for an awful lot of abuse. One of the things I remain concerned about is the lack of resources and commitment made to enforcing these changes. We all know that labour immigration and fisheries inspectors have been under repeated restructuring and they will struggle. The Government has given no assurances that we can expect to see a stepping up of enforcement and particularly in the area of observers on foreign chartered vessels. That is not an easy job. That is a tough job. Some people have proposed that they should not have to go to sea on their own and I tend to agree with that. The intimidations and threats against the families of crew together with language barriers and difficulties of access to New Zealand support institutions continue today despite the updating of the code that the Government brought in a couple of years ago. This means that abuses of fishing crew are likely to remain under-reported.So although we want to see this issue resolved I have doubts unfortunately that we will see it resolved unless the Government commits to proper inspection and enforcement of this new law. I have no doubt that this House is serious about eliminating this most evil of exploitation. When that is matched by intensive resourcing inspection and prosecution we may begin to hope that acceptable and equitable New Zealand labour standards will finally be applied in all fishing vehicles operating in New Zealand waters.