O'Connor Damien: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Damien: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7893. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman) 
: 
 Firstly I would like to congratulate the Minister for Primary Industries; I think this bill the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Bill will be his first bill in the House as the Minister for Primary Industries. It is fairly obvious actually because he has given so much praise to his officials. I am sure that down the track he will not place so much faith in all the advice that he gets from them particularly in this area because it is an area that has been fraught over the years. 
I acknowledge—and it is through this Opposition party supporting the bill—that this is a good piece of legislation. It is well intended it is necessary and perhaps it is overdue. It is always very difficult for me to get up here and praise the Government—and in doing so can I say that I hope it does not happen too often—but I am just concerned about the framework. 
The Minister has correctly outlined all the provisions in the bill and I think that is great but he said that foreign charter vessels have vastly improved their operation since the inquiry. Well I am not sure that that would be the case. I know in fact that this bill will be necessary to make the changes because there is a culture on foreign charter vessels that has been allowed to continue for too long in spite of warnings—to us in Government as well—and officials have been denying the reality of the conditions on those boats. It has taken us too long to sort this out. 
 I applaud the Government. I would like to acknowledge our former colleague Paul Swain who chaired the inquiry. The report was a good one. It correctly identified the problems that we have perhaps known about. We have investigated. In fact I do not think the member was a member of the Primary Production Committee but we had an inquiry back in the early 2000s when another piece of legislation came through the system. 
We knew things were not right. We brought the officials in. We sought information assurance. We were given it. I am sure Mr Ardern as a member of the select committee at the time will remember the assurances we were given—quite wrongly in fact—that all was well and that we could enforce fair conditions and fair protection for workers on foreign charter vessels. Well we could not and we did not. I guess we have to apologise to all the workers of those vessels over a number of years who have been effectively slaves for many many reasons. My colleague in the Lyttelton and Port Hills electorate has met many of them as we all have. 
I would like to just go back to a bit of history to 1997 when the fisheries bill went through—1996-97. In fact it was our former colleague Graham Kelly who insisted at that time that anyone working on a boat catching New Zealand fish should be paid at New Zealand rates of pay and get New Zealand conditions. It was agreed to at that time—somewhat reluctantly by the National Government I have to say but it was agreed. Then there were a lot of fingers crossed in the hope that we could in fact carry that through and enforce that. 
Why I have some concerns is because again the Minister for Primary Industries in his speech to the House today says that this will ensure that we have fair payment at New Zealand rates and that we have fair protection. We cannot do that onshore. We cannot do that in some of the businesses around Auckland and around the country now. So it is going to be a big ask to be able to ensure that that occurs on boats a long way offshore around this country. It is with good intention that we have laws to protect workers in this country working onshore but we cannot guarantee it—we should. 
What I say to the Minister is that although good intents are worthy and noble we need proper enforcement. The Department of Labour has shown in the past its inability to enforce the legislation around health and safety and around fair employment conditions. The Government needs to put greater resource into enforcement to follow this piece of legislation through otherwise we will end up with where we have been for too long. 
Again back in the 1990s we had a commitment by the New Zealand fishing industry to “New Zealandisation”. That was that we would move to have New Zealand - owned and controlled vessels and New Zealanders catching what is an incredible resource. One of the biggest fishery zones in the world is here on our doorstep—beautiful fish; protein that the world wants. We had committed as a country and with the industry to “New Zealandisation”—that is that we should own and control it invest in it and get the best value from it. 
Well we moved in that direction but foreign charter vessels have stopped that progress. They have been in place for too long. The requirement now to reflag is I think a good step. I hope that we see fewer of those vessels in our waters and that we have more of our own. There is an argument put forward by the industry that it needs these contract vessels to catch the lower-value species. Well the lower-value species dare I say can be higher-value species over time. I think we have underestimated the value of wild fish. Protein grown and nurtured in the Pacific Ocean in the Tasman Sea is in my view worthy of premiums in the world market and I do not know whether we have extracted the best we can from that incredible resource. So we must move forward with that. 
This legislation is one step that will add cost to some fisheries companies and I say “tough”. We demand that we have standards and payments to workers in this country that are fair at least above minimum wage so they can survive. It is up to the companies to work together to get better value for that incredible resource. So Labour does support this bill. 
I ask a few questions because although it is progress the Minister himself said in another quote that the suspension of registration will occur only in exceptional circumstances. So the question I ask is how many of the fishermen and fisherwomen out there will have to be underpaid before the Minister steps in and deregisters a boat. 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: Director-General. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Well the Director-General; yes I appreciate that—the Director-General. The Minister will not intervene at all of course. That is the Government’s kind of mandate—“We do not intervene we do not do anything we hand it all over to other people.” The issue here is—[ 
Interruption 
] I hate to remind the House of the Government’s policy but anyway can I say that the question will remain. When will— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Every weekend Damien on the high seas. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I know that Minister would not. Look at leaky homes. That is a great example of that Minister’s inaction. Can I say that with good legislation we need the ability to intervene to police it and to follow it and carry it through. 
I ask a question of the Minister. He got up and said that there would be four key objectives and he named three of them. I am wondering what the fourth objective was for the fishing industry. I acknowledge and I applaud those objectives and I think it is important that he clarify the four of them. 
There are other questions coming out about the transition period of 4 years and why indeed the Government is allowing that. There are some people who believe that 2 years is a fair transition time to ensure that we have people working for New Zealanders in New Zealand and being paid at least the minimum wage. That is a fair expectation but this piece of legislation proposes to allow that to roll-out over 4 years which in our view is too long. 
In summary this is a good piece of legislation. It puts us on the right path but there are many issues and I am sure the Primary Production Committee will tease them out because we have heard many of the debates many of the excuses I guess in summary put before us over a number of years. We want to get this right. We need to ensure we have a fishing industry with a good solid sustainable future. We cannot have New Zealand companies who are paying proper wages and providing proper conditions competing with slave labour on boats that are decrepit and unsafe and that is the situation at the moment with foreign charter vessels. The question will be for the coalition partner of the Government the Maori Party to ensure that it can hold fast and make sure that these conditions are supported through legislation.