Smith Nick: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Smith Nick: Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:17732] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 The aquaculture industry is one that has huge potential for New Zealand. We are a coastal nation. We have beautiful clean oceans and we have many areas of New Zealand where aquaculture can play a very important role in regional development. But it is an area that has been wrecked by poor public policy from this Government. Only a month ago I had 320 constituents lose their jobs at Sealord Shellfish as a consequence of the mess this Government has made of the aquaculture industry. To put those job losses in context I note that it is the biggest single loss of jobs in Nelson in its 158 years of settled history. It is a huge blow to my electorate’s economy. I say to the Government opposite that accountability day is coming up later this year on which the people of Nelson— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Is Lockwood accountable as well? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I notice that Labour members are laughing. They think that the loss of 320 jobs is a laughing matter. I have to say to members opposite that that is one of the reasons why the people of New Zealand have lost confidence in the Government. When members think it is a laughing matter— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I apologise for interrupting the member’s speech but I felt compelled to correct the record. I was not laughing at the loss of jobs—that would be reprehensible. I was laughing at the need for Lockwood Smith to be accountable. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: It is a debatable issue. The member can take the next call. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I say to Mr Cosgrove that the part Labour does not understand is that when 320 people in Nelson lose their jobs because of botched aquaculture legislation this Government has done its day. When Clayton Cosgrove and his colleagues opposite laugh their heads off I say to them that this is not a laughing issue. This is an issue that goes to the core of the wealth creation that New Zealand needs to engage in if it is to maintain living standards and stop the tide of New Zealanders departing for Australia. 
What has been so depressing for me in Nelson is to watch scientists investors and skilled people in Nelson the leadership of the aquaculture industry take their skills and wealth to Australia because of the botched regulatory regime that this Government has made of aquaculture. Let us compare the record. In 1990 the aquaculture industry was worth $40 million. With the very careful stewardship of people like Doug Kidd the Minister of Fisheries in the last Government that industry grew from $40 million a year to $260 million a year and was one of the reasons during the 1990s that the economy was growing so strongly in places like Marlborough and Nelson. The first thing that this Government did when it came to office in 1999 was to impose a moratorium on aquaculture. The first thing that Clayton Cosgrove and his colleagues over there did was to freeze the growth of this industry. They rushed into Parliament an aquaculture moratorium bill that resulted in freezing this industry. Since that time they have had four cracks at trying to get the aquaculture— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Ha ha! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member is laughing again. The members of the Labour Party are so out of touch with New Zealanders that they think when they make a mess of legislation that it is a laughing matter. 
Let us read the intent of this bill. It is to clarify the aquaculture reform legislation of 2004. Well the reason that it needs to be clarified is because the Government botched it up—it made a mess of it. And now we have the fourth attempt a desperate attempt in the dying gasping days of this Government to get some sense in to the development of the aquaculture industry. The great irony is that about a year ago I and Phil Heatley our very capable spokesperson on fishing and aquaculture attended a function in Nelson where the Prime Minister launched a billion-dollar strategy for the aquaculture industry. She told the people of Nelson my community that hundreds of new jobs would be able to be produced as a consequence of this Government’s policies—and within a year 320 jobs were down the toilet. So the members opposite should say “Mea culpa.” They should accept some responsibility for the mess they have made of this important industry. They should accept some responsibility for the job losses that have occurred as a consequence of the legislation they have passed that has not worked at all well. 
I like Phil Heatley do not have confidence that the reforms in this bill will go nearly far enough for what will be required to get the aquaculture industry onto a growth path. We will support the bill’s referral to the select committee because we want to have a crack at trying to fix the mess that Labour has made of this aquaculture law. Clayton Cosgrove and his Labour colleagues think it is funny that they have frozen an industry. They think it is funny that 320 jobs have been lost in Nelson as a consequence of the mess they have made in the aquaculture industry. They think it is funny that we have a large number of aquaculture investors who have taken their capital to other parts of the world because of what those members have done in New Zealand. They think it is funny that research scientists who work in the aquaculture area have taken their skills to other parts of the world. National says that that is not good enough. One of the reasons this Government will be tossed out on its ear is poor legislation in this sort of area which has cost the growth of areas like Nelson and Marlborough because of poor public policy and lost opportunities. 
I say to the aquaculture industry that help is on the way. There is a mood out there in New Zealand for change—change to a Government that recognises the potential that this industry has and will get rid of the ridiculous bureaucracy and red tape that Labour has tied up the aquaculture industry in over the last 9 years. I say to members opposite that the statistics paint a very clear picture of the Government’s failure in aquaculture. Average compound growth during the 1990s was 23 percent per year—23 percent year on year growth within the aquaculture industry. In 1 year over the last 9 years it got to 2 percent but there was an average of just 1 percent growth. That is why New Zealand is going backwards that is why we need a change of Government and that is why we need an aquaculture reform bill that goes considerably further than this fourth botched attempt by the Labour Government to get the law in this important area of resource management right. 
Bill read a first time.