Mackey Moana: Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMackey Moana: Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19779. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOANA MACKEY (Labour):I rise to take a short call in the Committee stage of the Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill. Certainly it is a piece of legislation that the Labour Party supports. It has had a somewhat unusual development path compared with other marine reserves. I want to acknowledge the concerns that were raised by submitters—not from Kaikōura but submitters who submitted here in Wellington—around I guess the bypassing of the regular mechanism for establishing marine reserves. Certainly there were concerns raised about the size of the reserve the shape of the reserve and the process that had been undertaken in order to get the reserve in place but I think any concerns that we had from the Labour Party perspective were allayed when we travelled to Kaikōura and heard from the Korowai group the guardians who had put together the marine reserve package. When we talked through the process that they went through the collaborative process and when we heard the submissions from all the different groups that have interests in this particular piece of ocean we certainly were convinced that it was a very good piece of work and a piece of work that should be supported notwithstanding the somewhat unusual process—or not unusual; that is probably the wrong word: the different process—that had been gone through in terms of establishing this marine reserve.Marine reserves are often contentious and you are dealing with a piece of ocean here that actually has I think far more existing rights in terms of use in terms of people making their living off the sea. Fisheries are always difficult to manage when you are establishing marine reserves—fishing rights and the rights of those who have been fishing there for a long time and who make their livelihood off that activity. But also of course in Kaikōura a lot of tourism activities occur around this area. So to go to Kaikōura and to hear submissions that were unanimously in favour of the marine reserve was a somewhat surreal experience in my experience but a very very positive one. To hear the pāua fishermen the cray fishermen the tourism operators iwi the local community and the local Forest and Bird organisation all coming to give very very positive submissions on this piece of legislation was a very rewarding experience and a very unusual experience for a select committee. Certainly we enjoyed visiting this very beautiful part of the country and being able to hear firsthand the positivity and the passion for this particular marine reserve knowing that it simply is not going to be left to the Department of Conservation to manage.This marine reserve is something that is owned by the local community by the local iwi and as they said to us this is a starting point. We appreciate that this is slightly unusual in terms of the scope of the marine reserve but we view this as a starting point and we want to build on it from here. Do not think that this is all there is going to be. Certainly they acknowledge that the lack of shoreline in the marine reserve was unusual but there were reasons for that and they were aware of them and they were going to build on that. I think that is a very positive message that we can take out of that. Although I acknowledge the concerns that were raised more generally about the scope of the marine reserve I think that when you spoke to the people who had developed it and had gone down there and heard their reasons and their stories as to how they got to where they were I do not think any reasonable person could say that it is a negative.I want to thank the officials for the work that they did on this particular piece of legislation. It is not always easy as we said. My colleague Ruth Dyson alluded to one very bizarre problem we had and I notice in the schedules that it has been completely rewritten to ensure that the GPS coordinates for the marine reserve go to three decimal points and not two. We did discover that the GPS coordinates in the legislation put the marine reserve about 20 metres out of place. I notice that the Minister for Primary Industries is in the House. Maybe he can answer a burning question that the select committee members had which we were not able to get fully answered. Why does the Ministry for Primary Industries have a policy of going to only two decimal places and not three decimal places? It seemed to us that if you have got three decimal places use them. It is going to be more accurate. We were just told in what was a very Gliding On moment that “It’s just MPI policy—two decimal places.” That is very efficient but I wonder whether the Minister for Primary Industries could tell me why—[Interruption] That is right. Why has the Ministry for Primary Industries got a strict two decimal place policy instead of a three decimal place policy? I hope that the Minister for Primary Industries will bring his ministry into the 21st century and move to a three decimal place policy as quickly as possible. Having a marine reserve that is 20 metres out of place in the legislation is not insignificant.As I said this marine reserve was started by Chris Carter. It has gone through four Ministers of Conservation. It will hopefully get the unanimous support of this House. I am very very pleased again. It is a slightly unusual process that we are going through in order to ensure that this bill passes before the election but I am very very pleased that my last speech in this session of Parliament is on something positive and on something that we have unanimous agreement on and on something that I am sure will benefit generations to come—not just on the Kaikōura coast but right across New Zealand. The Kaikōura coast truly is a very special part of the country. I was privileged to visit it for the first time when the select committee was hearing submissions.I want to wish you well Mr Chair in your future endeavours. I acknowledge your valedictory speech last night. As we close this session of Parliament I think this is an extremely good bill to go out on.