Scott Lynda: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
Scott Lynda: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17714] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 A great many marine farms happen to be in the Marlborough Sounds which is a beautiful area that I represent at this time. Colin King will be the next MP for that area. He is a great guy. He is a farmer; a good hands-on farmer who knows what it means to work. If he were the Minister in the chair he would get up and speak for more than 1½ minutes. This Minister the Hon David Benson-Pope could manage only 1½ minutes. I was timing him—1½ minutes and he did not get it right. I have to ask what this Minister actually knows about this bill. This is a big test for him. All he could do was stand up and quote a press release from the Aquaculture Council. Well the council said the bill is better now—but it could not have become any worse I tell the Minister. It absolutely could not have been any worse. It was an absolute shambles because what started off as a vision to try to get this country’s aquaculture industry growing at the rate that it should be growing turned into a moratorium under this Government and it was bogged down. 
The Ministry of Fisheries the Department of Conservation and local government were all fighting about what should happen but who on earth was representing the aquaculture industry? It was not this Minister or the Minister before him the Hon Pete Hodgson. Who was standing up for the aquaculture industry? Of course the Government says that this is better—because the original bill was just a mess. What the industry wanted was a one-stop shop. It does not have that. What it wanted was some finality and to be able to get on and practise the business that it knows about and that it has built in this country. The marine farmers of Marlborough built a fantastic industry without a huge amount of Government interference and with that they were the highest-income earners for that region. They had an industry growing at a rate of 20 percent. 
I ask the Minister what the growth rate is now. Does he know? It is zero percent. There has been absolutely no growth while the rest of the world is growing at 30 percent. This industry has been brought to a standstill by this Government. Of course the Aquaculture Council says that it wants to get on with it it is happy and it wants things to move ahead. Of course it had to put a huge amount of work into it. It always surprises me that bureaucrats manage to get it so wrong. These industry people work in the field every day but some bureaucrats in Wellington have never actually been to a marine farm. I remember when the Primary Production Committee came down to Marlborough—we finally got them out of Wellington—and its members were all looking around and asking where the marine farms were. They had the impression that they were wall to wall across the Sounds which of course they are not. But what I have to ask under Part 1—and I want the Minister to answer this; he started to answer it before and he did not go any further—is if a private plan change occurs for a private person and 80 percent goes to him and 20 percent goes to Maori why on earth would Maori want just a little patchwork here there and everywhere? 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: It has changed. The member should read the bill. 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: It has not changed. The Minister does not understand the private plan change. If we look at Marlborough where a lot of people have their individual farms which will become aquaculture management areas if they make a change then 20 percent will go to Maori. Why would Maori want just little patchwork areas here and there? I cannot see that. Who will be the Maori who would get that? There are eight iwi in Marlborough and I ask which would be the relevant hapu. How will they sort that out? 
The provisions of the bill relating to aquaculture management areas and the 20 percent space to Maori came from the belief that Maori did not get a fair go in Marlborough. Maori have 30 percent of the marine farms in Marlborough at this point in time. If they get another 20 percent under this bill they would have a total of 50 percent. Where did this idea come from originally that they did not get a fair deal in Marlborough? That is not the case. Marlborough has a unitary authority and that was a really big breakthrough in local government. A lot of other areas should consider doing that. It makes it easier for Marlborough to be progressive in the developing of aquaculture management areas. 
The industry was desperate for first right of refusal. These are the men and the women who have been out there forging an industry for New Zealand and it is a wonderful industry with a very healthy product.