Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill

The Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is very, very important. The bill strengthens the regulation of foreign-owned commercial fishing vessels operating in New Zealand waters. The bill is part of a range of measures that follow a ministerial inquiry in 2012 into questionable safety, labour, and fishing practices on some foreign-owned vessels. The ministerial inquiry, led by the Hon Paul Swain, found that although these issues are not widespread in the New Zealand commercial fishing industry, they are serious and need to be addressed in a coordinated manner, backed by legislative change.

The key features of the bill are the requirement that all foreign-owned vessels operating in New Zealand waters carry the New Zealand flag from 1 May 2016 and operate under full New Zealand legal jurisdiction. It will enable the Ministry for Primary Industries to consider employment and vessel safety matters as well as fishery matters while assessing applications for registration of foreign-owned fishing vessels. It allows the fisheries observers from the Ministry for Primary Industries to collect information on employment and vessel safety matters, as well as the scientific information they collect now, and it confers new powers to suspend the registration of non-compliant vessels. The mandatory reflagging of all foreign charter vessels will ensure that New Zealand is able to enforce its vessel safety, employment, and fisheries laws on foreign charter vessels fishing in our exclusive economic zone.

Through this piece of legislation the Government is sending a clear message that New Zealand is serious about the fair treatment of fishing crews, the safety of vessels, and its international reputation for ethical and sustainable fishing practices. The changes being made through the bill will protect our international reputation. Our trade access will also maximise the economic return to New Zealand from our very important fisheries resources. This is a robust and long-term solution that sends a clear message that New Zealand is very serious about addressing allegations of mistreatment and underpayment of crew on these vessels.

I have carefully considered the exemptions proposed by the Primary Production Committee, but before I talk about those can I just acknowledge the outstanding work of the chair of the Primary Production Committee, Shane Ardern, who gave his valedictory statement today. I also acknowledge all the members of the Primary Production Committee who have been involved with this bill. Importantly, I just want to acknowledge a couple of other members who have recently given their valedictories and who have been a part of this select committee, and they are Eric Roy and also Colin King, and, before that, Shane Jones was also involved in this Primary Production Committee.

In particular, I have weighed up these exemptions and their impacts on the robustness of the fisheries management regime and the long-term certainty for the Government, industry, and our international trading partners. I believe that exemptions to reflagging risk undermining the Government’s ability to enforce its labour and vessel safety standards on foreign charter vessels under international law. Under the exemptions, New Zealand would have only limited jurisdiction over these matters in our exclusive economic zone. Therefore, exemptions have the potential to undermine New Zealand’s international reputation by being seen as weakening the reflagging regime.

The only exemption that I consider should be retained is the exemption to enable foreign charter vessels to be used for vessels conducting fisheries-related research approved by the chief executive of the Ministry for Primary Industries. There are minimal risks to this exemption, and it will enable the industry to innovate and move to commercially harvest new species in the event that New Zealand vessels are unable or unsuitable. In this regard, I draw the Committee’s attention to Supplementary Order Paper 429 in my name to make these necessary changes.

In summary, the Government’s objectives for foreign charter vessels are to ensure that New Zealand’s labour standards—that is, enforcing a safe, fair working environment—are applied on all fishing vessels operating in New Zealand’s fisheries waters, to protect New Zealand’s international reputation and trade access, and to maximise the economic return to New Zealand from our very important fisheries resource.

Labour welcomes this piece of legislation, the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, into the Committee. Indeed, without the proactive cooperation of the Labour Opposition, it would not be here. We made the offer to the Minister for Primary Industries in the knowledge that it was not on the Order Paper and indeed we were going to close Parliament tomorrow without this legislation passing.

There are members of the Primary Production Committee on the Government side there and on this side who have put a lot of time and effort into this, two of whom actually gave their valedictory speeches today, Eric Roy and Shane Ardern. They have followed the fisheries legislation from 1997 right through, and will welcome this piece of legislation giving effect to what has been the intent of the legislation for some time.

In 1997 when the legislation was passed there was, through the efforts of my colleague Graham Kelly, an initiative in this House to ensure that anyone working on fishing boats catching New Zealand fish in our economic zone should be paid New Zealand rates of pay and work in conditions that we would expect for New Zealanders. We were given assurances and the legislation stated that in 1997, but actually by early 2000 it had become apparent that we were not guaranteeing those proper conditions for a lot of foreign fisherman who were coming in on foreign boats catching fish.

So there was an inquiry, and in fact Labour in Government sought further assurances from the Department of Labour at the time and from the guild, as it was then, to give better security and protection for fishermen who travelled a long way and came in these boats that were not ideal. The boats were not new. Some might have called them rust buckets, but I guess they could still float. They had come into New Zealand waters to catch fish under contract to New Zealand companies. It then threw up some very sad situations like the Oyang 70 and a number of other situations at Lyttelton Port where boats had been tied up. It had become apparent that, in fact, our law was not being properly implemented.

I acknowledge the Government conducted a ministerial inquiry. Our ex-colleague the Hon Paul Swain did a very good job and came back to the Government with recommendations. That piece of legislation came to the Primary Production Committee. On balance it was decided that reflagging under the New Zealand flag was the most appropriate way to protect the workers. They were working on those boats catching New Zealand fish in our economic zone for New Zealand companies who were profiting from this, but they were effectively being treated like slaves.

In fact, in passing this legislation we should not pat ourselves on the back too much because as a TV article just over a week ago disclosed similar conditions are being applied to workers from the Philippines in the Christchurch rebuild. So I say to the Government, in praising and assisting it here, that we have got to look at that situation here in New Zealand with Christchurch and—dare I say it—on odd occasions with Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers throughout the country. But I will put that to one side.

Labour, as I say, prompted the Government to take the initiative to introduce the bill and have it passed. We would have had it passed tomorrow if it was not for the Māori Party. I have to say it is absolutely shameful and disgraceful that a party that is here in this House to protect Māori people up and down this country—many of whom own quota, own the right to access fisheries, and in fact have many of their own people employed on fishing boats up and down this country—refused to give leave for us to pass this legislation in a way that would have seen it in place by 2016, as proposed in the bill, and passed prior to the closure of this Parliament. I think we could have all held our heads up high, because it required the leave of all parties to come in and pass this. We know it is not right. We know it is unjust. We know that we have had people treated like slaves in New Zealand in the 21st century—disgraceful.

I acknowledge the Government for its good work and the collaboration and cooperation of the select committee and all the members of it to progress the bill. I have to make mention of a last-minute amendment to the legislation after the select committee had, in fact, gone through it extensively. There were exemptions put up by the Minister for Primary Industries. I am not going to ask him why because he has pulled them back now, but they were exemptions for those who held a quota under Treaty settlements. I accept the reality that there are quota parcels owned by small iwi groups who have chosen to get that fish quota caught by foreign charter vessels because it is the only way they can realise the benefits of that quota, or it has been. So they have utilised—and I would hope reluctantly—foreign charter vessels to catch their quota and get some benefit from it. That is OK in a transitional phase, but this has been going on for too long.

These incidents, Oyang 70 and others, have been a disgrace and have put New Zealand in the spotlight of the international market place to the point where we have been struggling to sell some of our high-quality fish into Europe because of the slave conditions in which it might have been caught. It is a real dilemma. The Government has moved, so I acknowledge the Minister. But the Māori Party blocking this I find abhorrent and disgraceful. Everyone else in this Parliament has agreed that we should move it on under urgency and move it through because of its wonderful outcome for our international reputation, and ultimately for quota owners as well. I think this Parliament, if it thought that those small iwi quota owners were going to get rorted or squeezed, would have moved to protect them. They should have trusted us and trusted the system to give them due benefit from the quota allocated to them under the Treaty settlements. They deserve a fair go, but to get a fair go by way of slave labour is abhorrent to the sense of fairness and fair-minded values of just about each and every New Zealander. So we support the Government in passing this bill through.

There is a very good summary of what has happened here in the regulatory impact statement. It outlines the dilemmas we have been facing as a country. Labour wants to move all of our exports from volume to value, and move up the value chain. We do not want slaves catching our fish. We want the finest-quality fish caught by the best well-paid and protected workers and fisher people in this country. We have got 140,000-plus people out of work. Kiwis will work for the right incentive. Pay them a decent wage on these boats and sell high-quality fish to Europe or any other market, and there is money there for everyone—for the workers on the boats, for the boat owners, for the quota owners, and for the people who are selling our fish into the market. That is what Labour stands for. That is what we want to build across all of the primary sector.

Here is an opportunity to free us from the shackles of slave labour catching our fish and to move on. I trust that the block by the Māori Party now does not unnecessarily delay the passage of this bill. Labour commits, when we are in Government on 21 September, to this being the highest priority. We will move to complete the passage of this legislation. Shame on the Māori Party for blocking this. I acknowledge the good work, as I say, of my colleagues on the select committee. We did look at this from a wide perspective in trying to protect the interests of all those involved, but ultimately the flagging of these vessels as New Zealand vessels ensures proper standards of health and hygiene, and health and safety. I will not say any more than that other than to say that Labour supports this bill and the passage of it through the Committee stage. We would have liked to see it go through the third reading yesterday but, alas, the Māori Party blocked that. Kia ora.

I rise to speak to the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I am absolutely rapt that the Government has managed to get this on to the Order Paper so that we are actually debating this. As I am doing this, I am also ever hopeful that the Māori Party will come across and see this bill go through in this Parliament, the 50th Parliament. If it does, this will be the end of a disgraceful era that has persisted through successive Governments. But there have been changes. There has certainly been a change of will, particularly as social agencies and civil society, I will call it—people who are academics, authors, investigative journalists, and a range of people—have come out and exposed the abusive behaviour that is going on for the sake of small profit by various fishing companies in New Zealand. It would appear that the Māori Party is persisting in supporting what we see as rather poor behaviour.

I know that a range of organisations—and I will list them: Anglican Life, Human Rights Lawyers Association, Slave Free Seas, the Salvation Army, Canterbury Indonesia Society, Maritime Union of New Zealand, Anglican Refugee and Migrant Network, Service and Food Workers Union, Canterbury Community Law Centre. There is Peter Dawson, a maritime lawyer; a crew advocate and translator, Elyana Thenu; Dr Ani Kartikasari, a crew advocate and translator; Dr Christina Stringer and Dr Glenn Simmons, who wrote the book Not in New Zealand’s waters, surely?; Guye Henderson; and Rachelle Boulton. These people wrote to everybody in the last few days. Well, they actually wrote to the Minister for Primary Industries—thank you, Minister—the Rt Hon John Key, the Hon Steven Joyce, and the Hon Gerry Brownlee to try to get this bill in, because it was not on the Order Paper and this Parliament was about to rise. Those people wanted to see the change. They are good representatives of the community and they have said that it is an opportunity to get this through.

I believe there may be a bit of politics in behind this at the moment, and I am hoping that some of these issues can be resolved overnight so that tomorrow we can see the passage of this bill through the House. I anticipate seeing the Māori Party in the Committee supporting this so we can all finish the 50th Parliament knowing that this legacy is behind us.

We recognise that the bill has exemplary aims in protecting the human rights of crew on these foreign charter vessels operating within New Zealand’s jurisdiction. And there are other aspects. This bill is to ensure a full observer programme on fishing vessels for the purposes of vessel safety, employment, and fisheries research, management, and enforcement. Further, we as the Primary Production Committee under the good chairing of Shane Ardern—who I think has been a very good chair, and I missed his valedictory, unfortunately, today—worked very hard on this bill. We really thought we were getting somewhere, and it was only at the last minute that this other exemption came in for Treaty settlement quota, which was most unfortunate.

There was another exemption, and I put my neck on the line in exposing that one because it was looking after only tuna species. It was absolutely fantastic when the Minister announced the removal of those two exemptions. It was a very, very good move. Not only that, he went further than I had expected and removed the exemption on exceptional circumstances.

So we have just the one exemption that is left in the bill, and that is appropriate only to the degree that the labour clauses and the observer angles in it are still managed on those ships in the rare event that they might be used for scientific purposes. So we are very, very pleased to see the end of those exemptions.

In recent times I have had continued communication about the abuses that went on in those ships. They are the sorts of things we do not even like talking about: the rape of crew, the beating of crew, the putting of crew into chillers for punishment, crew going without food, and all sorts of oppressive behaviours that we would not accept on land here in New Zealand. We obviously do not accept them out there either and we want that changed. So we are looking forward to a change of heart if the Māori Party has, indeed, blocked leave. I am giving it a little bit of credit for maybe half an hour to come through and show us that change. It would be fantastic. I do not really want to follow down the path of my colleague Damien O’Connor of accusing it of too much just yet, because I think there may be some politics at play. So I would welcome the Māori Party in the Committee at any moment to make some changes.

There are people out in the community right at this moment who are waiting and hoping. Some, I gather, are praying. I am not of that persuasion but I am certainly right there with them to see that change come through, through the goodwill and the humanity in all of us, including in that other party. I will have another call shortly. Thank you.

I am going to take a short call on this Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I just want to put on record my support for the bill and the fact that it is being debated in its Committee stage the day before the House is due to rise, and also my hope that this bill will have its third reading tomorrow. As the previous member, Steffan Browning, said, there have been a lot of calls from people in the community, people involved in this industry, and people involved in this disgraceful episode in New Zealand’s history to have this bill passed through Parliament.

What I want to do in my call is try to take us back to what this is really about. It is about the situation, the history that we have in recent years of crew who came to work in New Zealand’s waters on foreign-crewed vessels. I came in touch with some of the crew from the Shin Ji. They came mainly from the Tegal region in central Java, which is one of the most impoverished areas of Indonesia, with high unemployment and low pay and so on, so you can imagine that when they were recruited to come and work in New Zealand they thought this was going to make a real difference for them and for their lives and their families’ lives. But they had to provide condition precedent guarantees and securities to the manning agency, including a cash bond of up to US$300, which is a lot of money in that region. They were also required to hand over birth certificates, family identity documents, and education certificates just to get the job. On signing their contract with the manning agent, they signed an agreement that said that they would be completely submissive and obedient, as established by the third party—in other words, the manning agent in charge of the foreign-crewed vessel.

As I mentioned, I came in touch with the Shin Ji crew in 2011, but the first time there was a situation with the Shin Ji crew was in 2009 when there was a crew that walked off the job when the vessel arrived in New Zealand. Eleven Indonesian crew fled the vessel, handing themselves into the police. They spent the night as vagrants in the custody of Auckland police. The next day the Maritime Union officials transferred the crew to the Auckland International Seafarers Centre. The men resolutely refused to return to their vessel, alleging ill treatment by its Korean officers—things like weekly saltwater showers, no hot water, and no pay for 4 months. So that was in 2009. Two years later, in 2011, other Shin Ji crew members refused to work. They arrived in Auckland, walked off the ship, and refused to work, despite being threatened that they would be sent home and not get paid.

They cited abusive working and living conditions, the non-payment of wages, excessive working shifts, as well as sexual abuse. Earlier that year the boatswain drowned while clearing a blockage in the eel tank aboard the vessel. Half the crew were traumatised by this death and returned home, breaking their contracts. The remaining seven crew were required to do the work of 14. They were forced to work long shifts—16-hour days—and shifts up to 30 hours in length were common. One crew member reported that during the last 21 months they never had a day off, only time off at night after work finished. They often worked from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. the next day, or from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Some of them could not stay awake for so long, so they worked until they fell asleep.

Food was inadequate in quality and quantity. Usually halfway through a voyage the food was rationed. Meals included stale bread and rotting fish bait, from which crew were forced to select the best pieces of bait to eat and were not allowed to cook in the pantry. The pantry was locked. They were often abused for taking too long to eat a meal, and sometimes had to forgo meals. There was a lack of proper protective clothing, especially boots and gloves for use in the minus 18 degrees Celsius freezer hold. Crew commonly received frostbite and freezer burns to feet, legs, and hands, resulting in walking impediments. They asked the captain for better boots and gloves but their requests were ignored. Mistakes led to one officer hitting crew around the head in a harsh punishment, and on and on it went.

The stories came through the inquiry that the Government set up on the situation of crews working on foreign-crewed vessels. I think one of the things that still disturbs me is that many of those crew were sent home and actually, I thought, quite harshly treated by the Government around immigration and so on. Many were not allowed to stay and pursue their wage claims. There are hundreds of millions of dollars still owed to many of those crews. They were forced to go home. We did not treat them that well. They have gone back to a situation where they are impoverished once more. Their so-called First World experiences of working in New Zealand in a First World job have been appalling. They came to New Zealand with high hopes and left abused, destitute, and gutted. Some of them talked about the rapes and the physical assault, the abuse—appalling treatment. This happened in our waters. That is why this bill must pass through its Committee stage tonight and have its third reading tomorrow. This happened in our country, in our waters. When people describe it as slavery they are accurate.

I give credit to the Government for the inquiry. I give credit to the Government for the fact that we have legislation. I am disturbed that it has taken this long to get us to this stage. I say to the Minister for Primary Industries that I really hope that you will do everything you can to persuade the Māori Party to pass this through its third reading tomorrow so that we can get this disgraceful and appalling incident off our books. Once having done that, we can go back and help those crew who still have not been paid, who are living in awful situations back in their country, and who cannot get jobs. This is a disgraceful incident and it is really incumbent on this Parliament to see it through, to get it passed, and to get it fixed before Parliament rises. Thank you.

I am pleased to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to make a very short call in this Committee stage of the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. The reason I am making a short call is that I do not wish to contribute in any way to the further delaying of the passage of this bill. If I understand correctly, we are held up from passing all the remaining stages of this bill only by the objection of the Māori Party. I would impress very strongly on the Minister for Primary Industries that if he has any influence at all over that party and its decision to not allow the passage of this bill, that he use that influence.

New Zealand First absolutely supports the bill as it is constructed. We are extremely impressed by the fact that the Minister has gone against, essentially, the advice of his own Primary Production Committee in rejecting the exemptions that were proposed in terms of tuna boats and iwi quota. We do support the aims and intentions of the bill. We do support the bill as it stands right now. If the Minister is able to bring some pressure to bear, or some persuasion to bear, on the Māori Party to get it to withdraw its objections to the rest of this bill in all its stages going through, we will absolutely support and vote for the passing of all stages of this bill into law in the dying stages of the 50th Parliament. Thank you.

Like the previous speakers I will take just a short call on this bill, the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. It is a very important piece of legislation. On a day when the Labour Party has released its employment rights and employment law policy, it is at least refreshing to see this Government, which has done so many negative things in the employment law field, to at least be embracing some progressive change, important change, and important protections for workers in the fishing industry on the high seas, with this bill. I give credit not only to the Minister in the chair, the Hon Nathan Guy, but to his predecessor who was around when the bill first came about and who responded positively to the ministerial inquiry report when it was reported back in 2012.

New Zealand’s reputation overseas on employment issues and employment rights is very strong. Notwithstanding some of the more retrograde measures in the last 6 years, nevertheless we are seen as a country that leads the way and leads many others when it comes to good positive values underpinning our employment rights.

What has been happening in our fishing industry, particularly with overseas fishing vessels, foreign fishing vessels, has been an absolute blight on this country’s reputation. It is encouraging to see that these steps are being taken, but, as my colleague Darien Fenton has pointed out, unfortunately for those many hundreds of fishing vessel workers who have gone without pay, who have been mistreated, abused, exploited, dumped onshore here, and have struggled to get back to their countries, it is, of course, even now, too late.

That is why I join with others, including Richard Prosser from New Zealand First, to urge the Minister and all members opposite who have influence with the Māori Party—if it has misunderstood the importance of this piece of legislation or has been misguided about it, I urge it to give leave so that the third reading of this bill can take place and we can all leave this 50th Parliament tomorrow with our heads held high that at least on the last day, in these last dying moments, dying hours of this Parliament, we have done something progressive and responsible and helpful and useful to those who would look to this Parliament for basic protections and to afford them some dignity and respect for the difficult experiences that they have been through. I urge that, and look forward to us passing this bill as soon as we possibly can.

Tēnā koe, Mr Chair. Thank you for allowing me to make a contribution. I would like to just echo the remarks from my colleagues on this side of the Chamber. We do support the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. This is a very welcome piece of legislation, long in the formative stages.

We know that the Māori Party was very actively involved in support of the ministerial inquiry that actually led to the introduction of this legislation. I recall that my predecessor, Rahui Katene, received a petition on the steps of Parliament, signed by 12,000 members of, and organised by, the Service and Food Workers Union back in 2011. She received that petition and presented it to Parliament, petitioning Parliament that there be a ministerial inquiry into the atrocious practices on our foreign charter vessels. That led to the ministerial inquiry. The Māori Party gave submissions to that ministerial inquiry. I would just like to read one part from Mrs Katene’s submission: “I consider it is fundamental that FCVs uphold the highest standards of human rights for their crew, and I also believe that iwi and Māori expect that crew members are treated consistently with their values of manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga.”

We definitely hope that that was not just rhetoric and that the Māori Party does actually front up and join with all of us other parties in the House to grant the leave so that this bill can progress through its third reading as we enter into the last sitting day of this 50th Parliament tomorrow. We are hopeful that the Māori Party can see some sense and pay tribute to Mrs Katene’s work in calling for this ministerial inquiry, which led to the introduction of this legislation. Otherwise, it is shameful that not all parties in this House are supportive of this legislation.

Let us not forget that we want to eliminate the practices of treating workers like slaves on our foreign charter vessels. There are atrocious stories and cases, which came through in the ministerial inquiry. We can mention names like the Oyang 70, terrible fatalities, poor treatment, non-payment, and lack of safety provided to the foreign workers who were working in some horrendous conditions. I am hopeful that the Māori Party can come and join with the rest of the parties in this House and allow us to let this bill progress to its third reading tomorrow, so we can complete it and pass it into law.

We know that Māori are significant stakeholders in the fishing industry. I, for one, was intimately involved in the Māori fisheries industry. Māori are the resource owners primarily at an iwi level, and, of course, for certain iwi their main revenue stream is through the sale of their deep-water annual catch entitlement. A lot of that annual catch entitlement has been sold to foreign charter vessel operators in the past, and they have been able to pay a premium for their annual catch entitlement to the iwi because they have appalling treatment for their workers in their operations. So that is the trade-off. If iwi want good returns for the sale of their annual catch entitlement, at what cost? What we have seen is that that has been at the cost of foreign workers, who have been exploited for years when fishing, much of it for the Māori annual catch entitlement, and we cannot just let that continue.

Our international reputation is at stake, and the Māori Party made it very clear at the ministerial inquiry how important our international reputation is. Well, if our international reputation is so important to the Māori Party; if the fair treatment of foreign workers is so important to the Māori Party; and if the opportunities for jobs for Māori to get into the business and activity of fishing, as promised through the Treaty settlements, is so important to the Māori Party, then I would encourage them—implore them—to please come to the House and join with all of the parties here tonight to ensure that leave is granted so we can ensure the passage of this important bill through into the final day of this 50th Parliament. That is my last plea. Let us hope we can achieve that so we can ensure that this bill is passed. Thank you.

The question was put that the following amendment in the name of the Hon Nathan Guy to the proposed amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 429 in his name to clause 12 be agreed to:

Delete clause 12.

Amendment to the amendment agreed to.

The question was put that the amendments as amended set out on Supplementary Order Paper 429 in the name of the Hon Nathan Guy be agreed to.

Amendments as amended agreed to.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 433 in the name of Steffan Browning be agreed to.