Scott Lynda: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Scott Lynda: Resource Management (Aquaculture Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11662] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take a call on this part of the bill and certainly about the lapsed coastal permits. It is a very important issue that demonstrates the difficulty that marine farmers have had and the ridiculousness of the bureaucracy that they have been facing in the last few years. Today’s marine farmers are absolutely enmeshed in a quagmire of treaty settlements seabed claims Resource Management Act issues Environment Court sittings coastal pollution from third parties navigation by-laws community consultation algae blooms port authorities and a moratorium that has been extended. 
In Part 2 I am very pleased to see that lapsed permits have been extended because for the people of my electorate in Marlborough what happened was an absolute travesty. What had happened was that they had only 2 years after Resource Management Act consents were given for those consentsto be able to take effect. I know quite a few people in the marine farming industry and some of those consents are for very small extensions. But the Ministry of Fisheries in Nelson 2 years down the track had not processed their applications through no fault of their own—absolutely none. After they had had to pay out all that money for those resource consents they would then have to go through the process again. Can members imagine how frustrating that is! 
To add insult to injury the Ministry of Fisheries said that if people ring up to find out where their consents are at the ministry will charge them $200 an hour to answer their questions. Well it certainly worked—it stopped it answering those questions. Three years ago in my first term as a member of Parliament for the Kaikoura electorate I was writing to the Ministry of Fisheries about the time delays. At that time the ministry told the Minister it did not need more staff and that it would get the situation under control. Well it did not. It did need more staff and it did need to be able to move to get those permits through. It has made no allocation for those that are just small extensions as opposed to major. It is taking them in the order in which they came in but they have not progressed. 
The rugged individuals the men and women out there who make the marine farming industry the multimillion-dollar industry it is today are frustrated to the hilt—absolutely to the hilt. Terry Schwass who is one of those pioneers a great guy has been really instrumental in setting up the aquaculture course at Queen Charlotte College. It is a wonderful course for kids and many of them are children who would have really not seen much future for themselves in Marlborough. They are now doing their boat master certificates their diving certificates and getting out and learning about aquaculture. 
That is the future. If we could just progress this industry and allow it to develop its potential! But the terrible amount of bureaucracy that has surrounded the whole development now—all the things I listed before—mean that this industry has ground to a halt. An industry that could be worth a billion dollars by 2020 has been ground to a halt. It has gone from 20 percent growth to zero. 
If we look just at mussels we see that the export volumes peaked in 1998 and have actually reduced since then. This is an industry that was booming creating regional development giving jobs and giving our children real hope for the future. I am talking about children who do not want to become academics. They want to go into an industry where they can work outside stay in the area they were born in and develop really good job opportunities. But now we see through the Government’s inability to deal with the issues in a way that will progress this industry in this country that we have an extension of the moratorium.