Ewen-Street Ian: Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Ewen-Street Ian: Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11694] 
IAN EWEN-STREET (Green) 
: 
 Obviously I disagree with the two previous speakers. I do agree with their summary of the state of events where there was a negotiation between the Ministry of Fisheries and the industry for the settlement of the under-spent levies. I make the point that the negotiation was between the ministry and the Seafood Industry Council which by and large represents the big players in the fishing industry but does not represent the small players. It is the small players who I feel have been very harshly treated in that process. A lot of those small fishers—not necessarily as a result of the levies—have left the industry. They paid their levies in good faith to pay for a service they did not receive. I think it is incumbent on us as lawmakers to say that those people have been unfairly treated and we need to redress the situation. 
We are their last line of defence; we are where democracy ends for those people; we are their last hope. I cannot believe that those people could come to the select committee and be dismissed with: “Oh yes. We accept it’s unfair but that’s just the luck of the draw. That’s the rub of the green.” I do not believe that. I think that those people having paid their levies in good faith are analogous to tenants who paid money to rent a house for 8 years but who on moving out of the house find that they have paid too much rent and the landlord says: “Yes I agree. You have been paying too much rent. What I will do is reduce the rent for the incoming tenants.” I do not believe that anybody in this room would believe that that is fair. I do believe that it is incumbent on the ministry and on us in this Chamber to present fairness to small players. 
The ministry when it was questioned during the select committee process acknowledged that it knew who those people were and acknowledged that they could be refunded. It would be administratively difficult but not impossible. I believe that it is crucial to democracy for us to take the part of the underdog and say: “Look this is unfair. We can do something about it so let’s do something about it.” To that end I have put forward an amendment to this motion to say that we should refund in cash those small fishers who are not represented by the Seafood Industry Council or the ministry. 
But even more telling is the case of those people who were paying levies but for whatever reason fell behind or failed to pay and were prosecuted by the ministry—in all fairness I suppose. It was subsequently found that the levies were illegal. I accept that they were retrospectively validated but they were initially not legal. They were certainly unfair. Those people had been prosecuted for not paying unfair levies and to this day they are continuing to pay levies. It is not too hard a process surely to identify those people—there cannot be very many of them; maybe half a dozen—and say: “Forget about paying your money back.” and just waive the outstanding monies. That surely is easy enough. 
My two amendments to this part are I believe the crux of this bill. If we do not accept these amendments then I think we are saying that Parliament is not about fairness that democracy is not about fairness and that we are just doing things because they are administratively convenient for the ministry. I do not think that is the way it should be. The ministry if members will pardon the expression cocked up on this issue. It was the ministry’s problem. I think it is incumbent on the ministry to acknowledge that to apologise to the people it has done wrong to and to refund those people for levies that were paid in good faith but not spent. I encourage my colleagues—those who have said I believe quite genuinely: “Look I agree with Ian. He has got a good point. It is not fair but we are going to vote against it anyway.”—to say instead: “Look this is a valid point. It is not that difficult. Let’s get in behind these two amendments and do something really constructive for those small fisher people who are not represented by anybody else in this community.”