Woolerton R Doug: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
Woolerton R Doug: Aquaculture Reform Bill — Second Reading Instructions to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17691] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will support this bill and in doing so I want to thank the chairman of the Primary Production Committee David Carter my fellow members of the committee—although it is sometimes doubtful whether I should do that—and of course the officials without whom we would be completely lost. 
New Zealand First believes that while the moratorium has been on the aquaculture industry we have been losing hard-won markets in overseas countries—markets that have been lost to other countries namely Australia South American countries and such like. So it is great that this bill is before us and shows a pathway ahead. I want to mention some of the issues that were somewhat contentious in the bill and give people our views on those issues. 
Firstly this bill is about allocating space. It is about allocating space on the commons or in public areas. It does not concern anyone that our ACT colleagues could say there should be a lease in perpetuity which is what they say in their minority report. The bill does not say there can be ownership by fee simple because it does not concern land; it is on the foreshore and seabed where this activity takes place. This is in short private gain on public space so it needs to be cared for and needs prescriptive legislation around it of a special kind and this legislation does that. 
When we are talking about 20 percent of new space for Maori it is simply misleading to talk about 40 percent of space for Maori. Whatever happens in the new space whether 40 percent of that is allocated to Maori at the end of the day—and people should be quite clear about this—Maori will receive 20 percent of space. Never mind where all these things came from—the Government of the day has decided that 20 percent will be allocated to Maori. It has said that upfront and that will happen. 
It is interesting though to consider where that 20 percent figure came from. That figure came as a precedent from the previous National Government when it passed the Fisheries Bill. That bill I might tell members—and my colleagues will speak more about this later—was passed not through a select committee but through this House in a great hurry—a hurry that makes this look like a walk in the park. So let us not forget that. 
In actual fact what will happen with this new space—bearing in mind that many of the aquaculture management areas that this bill sets up have not been defined; some have but many have not—is that some of the costs of application will come off the present players in the industry but the space will not. So it is facetious to be talking about space coming off other people. In actual fact in most cases extra water space will be allocated. Nobody will know whether that is the case or whether it is not and I am sure the councils that are charged with the responsibility of administering this bill will not be saying so. But in actual everyday terms more space will be allocated and that is where the 20 percent for Maori will come from. So there will be minimal cost to the present players and dare I say it minimal cost to the country. 
It is time we had a bill like this because when a new industry comes to New Zealand—an industry that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars—it is something we want to encourage but where and how it happens is very very important. There has been significant angst and significant argument over the original setting-up of aquaculture in this country and this bill although not faultless will go a very long way towards fixing all of that. Security of tenure as I have mentioned before was a problem. As the chairman of the select committee has said to the House that has been largely fixed up in this bill by giving present players in the industry first right of refusal—or right of first refusal which I am told is a different thing but I will not bother to try to work that out. 
Phil Heatley 
: The Green member will explain. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Thank you. New Zealand First is in favour of this bill. We will support the amendments and we will support the bill becoming law as quickly as possible.