Dalziel Lianne: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:18994. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Minister of Commerce) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister for the Environment 
: I move  
That the Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. Since the aquaculture reforms were enacted in December 2004 a number of issues have arisen with the legislation. This bill contains amendments to deal with those issues that have arisen from a May 2006 decision of the Environment Court in the case of  
SMW Consortium Ltd v Tasman District Council 
. The effect of this decision is that applications can be made for aquaculture outside of aquaculture management areas even though they cannot be granted. This could have the effect of blocking the allocation of space to iwi under the terms of the aquaculture settlement in the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004. It could also create problems in processing other applications and in developing aquaculture management areas. We cannot allow a loophole to block aquaculture settlement obligations being met. 
The bill cancels any applications that were made after 9 May 2006—the date of the Environment Court decision—that do not relate to aquaculture management areas in operative regional coastal plans. As far as officials know there have been no such applications. The bill also freezes applications made outside of operative aquaculture management areas between 1 January 2005 and 9 May 2006. I thank the Primary Production Committee for clarifying that this amendment applies only to applications outside of operative aquaculture management areas. These applications can be processed only if the relevant area becomes an aquaculture management area in an operative regional coastal plan. In the event that the relevant area does not become an aquaculture management area in an operative regional coastal plan within 10 years of commencement of the amendment bill the applications will be cancelled. These applications are the ones that were the subject of the Environment Court case. 
The bill also clarifies in light of the Environment Court’s decision how aquaculture management areas are created. The bill makes it clear that from 1 January 2005 aquaculture management areas can be created only through the post - aquaculture reform provisions of the Resource Management Act by either developing a regional coastal plan that provides for aquaculture management areas and completing the interim aquaculture management area process set out in a regional coastal plan or deeming marine farms approved under old legislation to be aquaculture management areas. 
The bill also amends the Fisheries Act 1996 and the Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004 to ensure that the Ministry of Fisheries is not prevented from carrying out an assessment of any undue adverse effect on fishing. The select committee has assisted by adding clarification in clauses 9A and 9B as to whom aquaculture agreements should be made with when an area is covered by a reservation. Supplementary Order Paper 251 provides an additional technical fix to ensure that the fisheries register records a memorial against all quota stocks affected by a reservation. This keeps those trading quota supplied with the information that agreements could have been made that might affect the value of the quota. The Environment Court’s decision has highlighted a small number of consequential issues that provisions in the bill also address. 
The bill makes amendments to the Resource Management Act to ensure first that councils cannot grant coastal permits for non-aquaculture activities in an aquaculture management area except to the extent that the activity is compatible with aquaculture activities. Secondly an amendment to the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004 ensures that applications that are not cancelled do not prevent allocation of space to the trustee. Thirdly there are amendments to the provisions relating to the assessment of undue adverse effects and the definition of “new space” in the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004. 
The select committee has added a definition making it clear that unitary councils—and Tasman District Council is one of those—are regional councils for the purposes of the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004. This is a very sensible clarification. I thank the select committee for its speedy and detailed consideration of the bill and commend the bill to the House.