O'Connor Greg; Roberts AngelaFisheriesCHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): We now have the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries available from 4.20 to 4.40.ANGELA ROBERTS (Deputy Chairperson of the Primary Production Committee): Thank you Mr Chair. It is a pleasure to rise and take a call as we look at the Estimates for fisheries. I'm taking this call on behalf of Steph Lewis who is the usual chair of the Primary Production Committee.Fisheries as always is of great interest to all New Zealanders and it's a significant part of our Government activities. And of course the appropriations sought for fisheries was a total of $102.5 million which is a drop of course of 41.4 percent from the estimated actual expenditure of $175 million in 2022-23. We had some interesting discussions. We heard from the Minister about some of the challenges that we have around the sustainability of commercial fishing. We heard about significant strategic endeavours such as the Draft Fisheries Industry Transformation Plan and the innovations and the technology that is going to be able to help us to build a more sustainable commercial fishing fleet.We had asked about whether the Budget proposed any funding that would help to minimise bycatch—a critical part of the sustainability of our commercial fishery—and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) told us at that point that $5 million had actually been tagged in the Budget for the industry transformation plan and this could be used to support technologies such as those that would help to reduce the bycatch. We heard about the way that MPI have been encouraging the seafood sector to take more advantage of the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme—the SFFF"—which can help them with overcoming those capital hurdles that they have about making that investment in order to make sure that they are sustainable.We also heard about the significant piece of work that is the roll-out of cameras on boats. We heard—because every boat is different—about the technicalities of rolling out this technology so that it would be effective and actually support our fishers to be transparent and accountable and show that they have a really great sustainable fishery. And that's really important as we go to the world and we remind the world that we've got some really really great primary industry stories and produce. We heard about the complexities and that there were some bugs in the system but it was great to see the pilot really teaching everybody the best way to deliver this and it's great to see that those roll-outs are actually happening on boats now and a really great way to hear about the support for the sector.We heard about the potential for the growth of aquaculture—again as we are looking for a sustainable catch in the future hearing about what the industry is doing to show leadership and how MPI are doing their best to support that. They referred to the aquaculture strategy implementation plan and we heard about projects such as the open-ocean salmon farm in Cook Strait—again Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures. There were obviously some really good examples of the challenges that are facing fisheries and how the sector and Government have been working to get through those wicked problems. It is going to be very good to hear more from the Minister as we interrogate the Estimates for this year."