Prosser Richard: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeProsser Richard: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17290. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RICHARD PROSSER (NZ First): I am pleased to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take a call on the second reading of the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First supported this bill’s referral to the select committee in the first instance only because although we were generally in agreement with the stated aims and intentions of the bill we did have some concerns regarding certain aspects of it. In addition we were eager as I indicated during the first reading of the bill to hear the views of both the public and the fishing industry and of other interested parties on the particular concerns that we did have and on other aspects of the bill. Now that the bill has returned from the Primary Production Committee and having seen the nature of the changes contained in the Minister for Primary Industries’proposed Supplementary Order Paper I am happy to report to the House that New Zealand First will continue to support the bill in the form in which it will proceed with the Minister’s amendments in place.The Primary Production Committee examined the bill in considerable detail and listened to many submissions from both industry and other interested parties. The committee—on which I am privileged to sit as an observer—under the very able chairmanship of Mr Ardern performed sterling work. Mr Ardern has been a fine shepherd of this bill and I am sure that Minister Guy and his predecessor in the role Mr David Carter are both most appreciative of that fact. He is a very fine member indeed. Mr Ardern is well regarded across the House and I am sure that members will agree that his retirement at the upcoming election will be accompanied by the reflection that Parliament will be the poorer for his passing from it. Parliament’s loss will be the Taranaki dairy industry’s gain as Mr Ardern moves his focus back to his farming roots and we wish him well.I have digressed just a little—justifiably I believe—but in returning to the bill itself I am drawn back to the objectives of the bill with regard to foreign charter vessels and thereflagging of those vessels to the New Zealand flag thereby bringing the vessels and their operations fully under the jurisdiction of New Zealand law.The objectives of the bill in this regard are to protect New Zealand’s international reputation and trade access to maximise the economic return to New Zealand from our fisheries resource and to ensure that acceptable and equitable New Zealand labour standards including safe working environments are applied on all fishing vessels operating in New Zealand’s fisheries waters. These are principles that are entirely in line with New Zealand First’s objectives for the fishing industry although it is fair to say that we have further objectives pertaining to fisheries in general that this bill does not address. That is not a crucial matter at this point and I am sure that all members are also well aware that after the election in September New Zealand First will be very much in a position to be able to promote several more of our priorities as far as the fishing industry is concerned along with many other areas of policy initiative.One of the concerns that New Zealand First held when this bill was introduced centred on sharkfinning. We wondered whether this bill might provide an avenue through which the practice of sharkfinning might be addressed and so we are most satisfied that the Government has chosen to address it by flagging the implementation of a ban on sharkfinning in New Zealand waters separately from the passing of this particular bill. I say “flagging” because it is of course flagging with which this bill mostly concerns itself.New Zealand First has been supportive of the drive to see all vessels fishing in our waters operating under the New Zealand flag since long before the inception of this bill. Indeed it is no secret that the “New Zealandisation” of the fishing industry is of prime importance to us and we welcome this bill as a valuable and tangible milestone on the road to that very achievable goal. Acceptable and equitable New Zealand labour standards and safe working environments are but two of the enormously important benefits thatreflagging will bring to the mostly foreign crews aboard the foreign charter vessels fishing for quota in our waters. Until now—and it remains ongoing—we have had the distasteful and unacceptable reality that too many of the crews on too many of the foreign boats working our fishery have had to endure massively substandard living and working conditions on boats that in many cases should probably not even have been on the water. Floating rat-holes is how they have been described by more than one observer—rat-like living conditions and slave-labour wages accompanied by physical abuse and worse it is at the hands of owners and officers.This state of affairs simply could not be allowed to continue and with the passing of this legislation it will not continue. Foreign charter vessel owners will be required toreflag their vessels to the New Zealand flag bringing wages and living and working conditions into line with the requirements of New Zealand law. One of the concerns we held regarding this bill prior to the select committee process was the time it was proposed to take for thereflagging exercise to be undertaken within and by that I mean the time frame that was to be allowed for boat owners and quota holders to complete thereflagging process. Four years was the suggestion and our response was that we could not understand why it should take so long and why it should be allowed to take so long. We called for the process to be completed within 1 year.Having listened to the submissions of the industry during the select committee process I now understand the reasons behind this. We now know that the process ofreflagging a vessel from one nation’s flag to that of another nation is by no means a swift or easy undertaking. It involves a not insignificant administrative exercise and no small monetary cost. It is also a time-consuming operation and in some circumstances—notably in respect of the United States—once done it cannot ever be undone. It is for these reasons that the process known as deeming operated by some countries including Australia has presented as being an impractical option for New Zealand.Deeming is a mechanism whereby foreign vessels are deemed to be flagged as if they were operating under the flag of the nation exercising jurisdiction in the fishery in question if they are able to prove they are able to meet the minimum requirements of that nation. Invariably however it will be only boats from nations whose standards exceed our own that will be acceptable as deemed vessels.Ian McKelvie: Oh are you thirsty Richard? You’re talking too fast.RICHARD PROSSER: A wee bit then—it is thirsty work this. We are heartened that the Minister’s proposed amendments will remove all but one of the exemptions suggested from thereflagging provisions of the bill. The bill as proposed would have offered exemptions for iwi and for foreign boats chasing highly migratory species such as tuna from the 4-year time frame within which all foreign charter vessels must bereflagged.The use of foreign charter vessels in the New Zealand fishery was only ever meant to be an interim measure. It was a step on the road to the fishery becoming completely “NewZealandised”. It has now been in place for around 20 years and frankly we believe that that is plenty long enough. Arguments by iwi that the inability to access low-cost labour in the form of foreign charter crews for the purposes of harvesting their settlement quota will diminish the value of those settlements are not arguments with which we agree. The reluctance on the part of some iwi members to take an active role in crewing boats harvesting iwi quota because of personal reasons or because of a disinclination to go to sea for the required period is not in our view a suitable reason for wanting others to have to live in floating rat-holes and subsist on slave wages. New Zealand - owned boats do offer good living conditions and good wages and they do so profitably.We see no reason why iwi cannot operate a similar model to the one already proven by other New Zealand companies. In the case of highly migratory species and tuna in particular we are persuaded by arguments that there are enough New Zealand vessels available or that if the fish are there there will be enough boats to harvest such tuna as move through our waters during the period of the season as it presents.New Zealand First does support the exemption for vessels carrying out research sanctioned by the Ministry for Primary Industries because that strikes us as beingeminently sensible. We trust that they will not be Japanese boats undertaking research on whales.In conclusion New Zealand First is fully supportive of the Act that this bill will become when it is passed with all the proposed amendments and I commend it to the House. Thank you.