8. Question No. 8—Oceans and FisheriesRACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for Oceans and FisheriesQuestion No. 8—Oceans and Fisheries8. RACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries: What announcements has the Government made regarding oceans and fisheries?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for Oceans and Fisheries): Last week the Government announced a ministerial inquiry into the use and allocation of migrant labour in the seafood sector. The inquiry will focus on the sector's reliance on migrant labour and how to transition it away from that reliance. We'll also examine how to accelerate efforts to attract more New Zealanders into rewarding jobs in the seafood sector. It will consider commercial seafood activities including deep-sea fishing inshore fishing aquaculture and seafood processing. The COVID-19 border restrictions have highlighted the sector's vulnerability due to its reliance on migrant labour. While businesses in the sector have worked to reduce that reliance some deep-sea vessels in particular are still 100 percent foreign-crewed. This work will provide information needed to understand where improvements can be made so that the industry can be more resilient and more New Zealanders can have the opportunity to participate.Rachel Brooking: How is the Government integrating oceans and fisheries policies?Hon DAVID PARKER: The Prime Minister created this portfolio in 2020 to focus on ocean ecosystems as a whole. In response we've begun a coordinated approach to address ocean sustainability issues through a raft of programmes and initiatives. Our vision is to ensure the long-term health and resilience of oceans and coastal ecosystems including the role of fisheries. Our vision for the oceans as I've said includes the role of fisheries commercial and otherwise. The jobs the industry provides are important to many communities and high-quality products sent around the world earn valuable export dollars. We've got a cross-agency coordination group comprising officials from the Department of Conservation the Ministry for Primary Industries the Ministry for the Environment and other agencies as appropriate.Rachel Brooking: What other announcements has the Government made regarding oceans and fisheries?Hon DAVID PARKER: There's been a suite of initiatives in the last month. This has included our announcements on plans for the Hauraki Gulf. We've set out the funding and time line for the implementation of cameras on boats for the inshore fishing fleet we've announced changes around rules around the dumping of fish at sea we've set out how we're going to modernise fisheries regulations and we have laid out our initial response to the report of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor on commercial fishing. This has been done at a pretty fast pace but there's still quite a bit more to do and I thank stakeholders and officials including the industry for their participation to date.Hon Eugenie Sage: How does the Minister propose to protect the sea-floor and seabed sediments in New Zealand waters as an important storehouse for carbon from the impacts of bottom trawling which creates plumes of sediments and mobilises carbon?Hon DAVID PARKER: We've already laid out plans to restrict the areas of trawling within the Hauraki Gulf area to corridors that are yet to be specified but will be significantly reduced in area compared with current trawling efforts. In respect of bottom trawling in the deep sea we're not proposing to ban it. We will look at issues as to whether we should have restrictions on what I think is in the media today as virgin areas being bottom trawled and whether we should be holding bottom trawling to the areas that have previously been bottom trawled and we'll also work with the industry to improve technology so as to minimise damage. In terms of sediment issues a lot of those are land-based but I would agree with the member that they need to be addressed too.Rawiri Waititi: How does the Minister uphold mātaitai that have been signed off but challenged by the commercial fishers in that particular area?Hon DAVID PARKER: I take advice where applications are made for the establishment of mātaitai areas and there are a number in New Zealand that have been successfully established and operate well. There are sometimes disagreements as to proposals for new ones and where there are disagreements I take advice from fisheries officials and run a fair process to work those issues through.