Dyson Ruth: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dyson Ruth: Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7905. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 Can I begin by congratulating the Minister for Primary Industries and say that this bill the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is an excellent bill to have as your first bill in a new portfolio. I am sure the Hon Nathan Guy will be justifiably pleased that it has fallen into his hands to present to the House and I am really pleased that Labour is supporting it. 
I want to make just three points about the bill but before I do can I say that the issue of foreign charter vessels and the abuse of crews has been a very real issue for me as the member of Parliament within whose electorate is the Port of Lyttelton. We have a large number of foreign crews in our electorate and the stories of abuse are shocking. They really upset people. I want to pay tribute to the people of Lyttelton and Sumner particularly who have literally taken foreign crew into their own homes to support them in the way that we would want New Zealand to be regarded as supporting people who come to our shores to work. 
The first point I want to make is that this bill requires New Zealand flagging and that has been an issue of considerable debate actually since day one of my time in the House. I think it is a move whose time has certainly come. Not only will it improve the ability of the officials to know what is going on because there is always some debate about what regulation and what legislation applies to different vessels but for absolute clarity the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment will be able to monitor all the legislation and regulation as if each vessel was a totally New Zealand - owned and operated business. That clarity is going to be really helpful for our officials. I want the officials to know that they will have the backing of all parties in this Parliament if they see any abuse of workers because not only is it terrible for the workers involved to be treated so badly but also it really damages New Zealand’s reputation to have our name attached to the abuse of workers. I do not think anyone in the House would like to see that. So the first point is the most important part of this bill which is the fact that all ships will be New Zealand flagged. 
The second point I want to make is about something the bill does not do and I hope the Primary Production Committee is able to remedy it. It does not do anything to address the other issue that is of concern at any time but of course more so in times of high unemployment as we tragically have now under the do-nothing hands-off National-led Government. The displacement of jobs that New Zealanders could take but that are currently being filled by these foreign crews is something that I think the select committee ought to address. We have a large number of young people who I think would thrive if they were in that environment. It is a hard life. It requires a lot of discipline but I know that many of our young people particularly would respond very well to that opportunity. So hopefully the issue of jobs for New Zealanders on these charter vessels will be looked at as well. 
The third point I want to make in my contribution to this debate is the length of time before this legislation is going to be implemented. I cannot recall any bill that has had a waiting time of 4 years. That is nearly the time from a baby being born to starting school. It is a large amount of time and it is totally unnecessary. It means that we are condoning bad practice although the whole of Parliament is admitting that it exists and agrees on the solution. The bill will go through a select committee process and may be tidied up but then we are saying that we will wait for 4 years to implement it. I do not understand that. It is one of the very few issues on which the maritime lawyers and the maritime union are totally as one. They say that it is too long as well and I would want to be hearing from the officials at the select committee and perhaps even from the Minister during the Committee stage if the select committee does not fix this up some justification for this taking so long. 
As I said at the beginning it is a real pleasure for me to be part of the Labour team which is standing in support of this bill. What it does is excellent and it will make a real difference to people who are actually in very vulnerable situations. When you are on the other side of the world your job is on a ship and you cannot necessarily speak the first language of the country whose port you are in you are in a very vulnerable situation. So we are saying that we are standing beside those workers. We want to improve their conditions. I hope we also make opportunities for New Zealanders to have jobs as well.