Auchinvole Chris: Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Auchinvole Chris: Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National) 
: 
 I rise to speak in favour of the Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill. At present anybody can apply to create a marine reserve and once the process is struck the public becomes less and less involved in the process. This bill through legislation ensures not only the need to consult but also to do so thoroughly during the preparation of the application. The bill specifies that consultation must include groups that are actually representative of the community that lives by the sea people who use the sea for recreation and for earning a living through commercial fishing and/or tourism plus those who have an association culturally and through heritage such as the tangata whenua who we heard earlier this evening also claim the right through being a Treaty partner. 
The key to the need for this bill is that the present Marine Reserves Bill was referred to a select committee on 15 October 2002 and I understand that it has largely been neglected by the Government. It has not been reported back to the House. We heard from one of the previous Labour speakers about a maritime protection consultation process that was prepared last year by the present Minister of Conservation and the Minister of Fisheries. One of these new groups the West Coast Marine Protection Forum has in fact been established and has been working since I think last September. I attended one of its inaugural meetings at Hokitika. It has since been holding a number of other meetings throughout the Coast from Haast north. I spoke recently to the chairman of that group. 
Why then if that group is already in place do we need the new bill? The forum has representation from fishermen interest groups the Department of Conservation and the Ministry of Fisheries. I guess the reason we need this bill though is that it establishes a group through legislation. Based on the experience of the forum to date this bill has two key elements that will give the public some confidence for sadly the public seem to be losing trust in the present Government and its agencies in a wide range of activities that affect them. They do indeed. As stated in a report in the  
Greymouth Evening Star 
 of 27 April we are dealing with people on the Coast who do not deal with cosmetic change. They understand real change. The meeting was packed out with angry people. The sorts of comments called out did not indicate a great sense of trust in the present Government and its agencies based on the past or even looking to the future. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Labour has abandoned the West Coast. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: Labour has abandoned the West Coast indeed. A previous Labour voter told me: “Labour has left the Coast. The Greens want everybody else to leave the Coast. Thank God National’s coming back.” 
The forum is driven and established by the Department of Conservation which was very well-intentioned in doing so and the Ministry of Fisheries which was very well-intentioned in doing so but in fact it is not underpinned with the sort of legislation that looks after people in the way that Eric Roy’s bill will. I guess that the feeling is that the consultation could turn out to be cosmetic as so many other activities of this Government have turned out to be. People on the Coast are not happy with cosmetic consultation. They are not happy with being told they have been consulted when they have not but they will be happy with this bill and I congratulate Eric Roy on its introduction. 
That is the feeling that this Government and its agencies have generated in the minds of the public. There is a voiced concern that the Government has decided that 10 percent of the area will be put in reserve and there is a feeling of powerlessness to prevent the steamroller effect of an unfeeling Government having its own way regardless. We are not talking about a lack of public interest. Ninety people attended in Haast which is a big part of the local population. The meetings throughout have been well attended. There is a call for people to have a referendum. The interest is high; the process is weak.