Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It gives me pleasure to rise on behalf of ACT to talk on the Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I want to first start by thanking the Primary Production Committee, ably chaired by my colleague Mark Cameron, and his colleagues on that committee who have done some excellent work looking at this bill. I also want to note that it has been unanimously recommended that the bill passes, and all the amendments that were made through the diligent work of that select committee have also been unanimously recommended.

Steve Abel: Best select committee in the House.

TODD STEPHENSON: Oh, best select committee in the House, Mr Abel tells me, and, again, I want to acknowledge his contribution to that select committee.

Look, this bill, just to recap, is important in ensuring that New Zealand meets its international obligations, particularly around preventing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing—better known as IUU, which is a fun little acronym for this time of the morning. It does ensure that New Zealand regulations are around New Zealand - flagged operating vessels operating in our waters; also ensuring our ability to combat this illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; and also making sure that we do, as I said, fulfil all of our responsibilities as a responsible citizen operating in international fishing regimes.

This bill has been, as I said, extensively examined by the select committee. They did receive some submissions—six submissions—and they actually heard from two submitters. As I said, they’ve done some really great collaborative work on this bill, and so it is my pleasure, on behalf of ACT, to recommend it to the House.

Look, I’m very proud to support this bill. It’s about protecting our deepwater fishing industry and it’s an industry that contributes $2.7 billion to the New Zealand economy, $1.6 billion to GDP, and employs 8,500 people. This bill’s about sustainable economic growth and it’s about being, as my colleague alluded to, a good neighbour and trusted and responsible global trading partner. I commend this bill to the House.

Hon Rachel Brooking: Mr Speaker, thank you—

Just a moment.

Hon Rachel Brooking: Which call am I taking? We seem to have missed a whole number of calls from the Government benches maybe, but regardless—

Hon Member: A Māori Party call, but they didn’t take it.

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: Yes, I did go to stand, but today I’ll speak for myself.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): Carry on. I did take a stand—

Steve Abel: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): Did you stand to take that call?

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: I did take the stand, but somebody was already on their feet.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): My apologies, I did miss that. So we’ll put things right back into sequence. Thank you.

Mōrena, Mr Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa e te Whare. We support this, obviously, and all the work that’s gone ahead. This is coming from my own precious home back in Te Kāeo. Ikanui is a very important, special name, as the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries will know, and we come for those things. Even my tupuna Ikanui—they call him that—looks like a fish, and we are known to even sound like fish when we’re speaking Māori. So in all of that and to all of the work that has gone on in the Primary Production Committee, of course we support this. We are about fish and everything that comes out of our wonderful fine oceans in Te Aupōuri land, but I’m just making sure we take to our feet to support the work that this House does for all of our whānau and all of our hapū and our iwi, particularly Aupōuri, particularly Te Tai Tokerau. Tēnā tātou.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Very pleased to be standing today in support of this bill, particularly when we’re at a time when we really need cross-party collaboration and the attention and the energy of us collectively in this Chamber to actually make good decisions in the environmental space. This is a really great example of some much-needed legislation.

I really want to thank, for the work that’s gone on in the evolution of this bill, particularly, the Primary Production Committee who has considered it. I want to reflect that I had a very privileged experience of just a snapshot of experiencing and visualising the enormity and the vast expanse of our oceans. That was when I took up a role for the Department of Conservation to run the science and biodiversity contracts on Rangitāhua—Raoul Island—in the Kermadecs. It’s roughly 1,000 kilometres from Tāmaki-makau-rau Auckland. That involved a five-day sailing trip on this beautiful yacht the Tiama. But throughout those five days, you can’t help but be distinctly aware of how vulnerable our oceans are in terms of there not being eyes out there. There are simply not eyes out there. After those five days, by the time we arrived on Rangitāhua—Raoul Island—again, it was absolutely striking, the views of the ocean and the immense challenge of actually having eyes and patrolling and monitoring challenges that our whole entire agencies actually have in front of them.

So we do have these major challenges, particularly with these vessels that may be operating outside of our exclusive economic zone in international waters. There’s a number of issues which this bill luckily, I’m pleased to see, addressed. The one that is very unfortunate that it didn’t extend to is, of course, the workers’ rights when they are in these operations on these vessels—extremely poor and challenging working conditions experienced by these workers. We know that a lot of the issue with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is that it’s often not the bad guys who are coming from overseas. Unfortunately, often it is legal, regulated vessels who do their reporting who step outside the bounds of what is legal and undertake illegal activities. So I really support the work that’s come with this.

We would love to see, as Te Pāti Kākāriki, more cross-party collaboration, particularly in the oceans and fisheries space. But I need to bring up the example of Tīkapa Moana, where the Government are starting to make moves towards protecting just a tiny slice of that. It would only take things to 6 percent protection. Yet the Government is still considering opening up these high-protection areas within those proposed marine protected areas to commercial fishing. We cannot keep behaving like this, and we cannot keep not recognising the importance and the significance of our oceans not only to functional ecosystems and a functional planet but to the wellbeing of us. There’s no place where that is more obvious than oceans.

So I really, again, support the work that’s been done and want to thank those that have been involved. Te Pāti Kākāriki will absolutely support the passing of this bill and look forward to similar collaborative work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pretty straightforward bill, this, really. It amends the Fisheries Act 1996 so that, as our colleague said over there, we can better meet our international obligations regarding illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and it also improves clarity and efficiency of statutory provisions and associated decision-making processes. So this update is just that. It’s clearer, more efficient, and more reasonable. I commend it to the House.

This time, Mr Speaker, and apologies for my assumption that the Government members weren’t taking their calls—that’s my bad. Perhaps they will forgive me, given that, of course, we were in this Chamber at midnight last night because, for some reason, we are in urgency.

We’re talking about the Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which has been around for a bit of time. Of course, we see in the Chamber that the date is still on 25 March, when, in fact, we are now on 27 March in normal people’s time. Regardless, I want to note that this bill used to be in my name. So of course we are supporting this bill, and I’m pleased that it has progressed.

I’m also pleased that the Primary Production Committee has made a very considered report back on the bill. It has recommended a number of changes that, on the face of it, look very sensible, and I’m sure we’ll be able to ask the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries some questions about those in the committee stage. They all appear to be clarification changes, to make sure, for instance, that the chief executive can take into account any previous non-compliance in any jurisdiction—that’s one of the changes that has been made. As we’ve heard from Todd Stephenson before, a large part of this bill is about illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing—the IUU. We know that there were six submissions and two oral submissions made, so I thank all those people who have been involved in that process.

I just want to finish what is a short contribution in this second reading of the bill to make a call, again, just like my colleague Lan Pham has with her bipartisan plea on these fisheries matters. We can work constructively. We were working constructively on the Hauraki Gulf. That bill was reported back unanimously, just as this one has been, and yet we hear that there are going to be some changes that were not part of the select committee process. That is very poor form.

What is good form is when a sensible piece of legislation that has had a lot of input from officials who deal with international fishing—which is an interesting thing and it’s, obviously, outside of New Zealand waters. So these people, they go to the international conferences—some of the only international agreements in the world have been on fishing—and they do a very good job. This has been taken to the select committee, and, as I said before, the select committee has made a considered commentary. Now, it’s coming back to the House, and I’m sure that the Minister will be wanting to answer any questions in the committee of the whole House on the bill as it was when it was looked at by the select committee and as it was when the submissions were made on it at that select committee. So it has gone through that process where the select committee had it for a good amount of time, as well.

This is how lawmaking should be done in this country, and I would implore the Government to take this approach on many other bills. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, I’ve been subject to your effective action with violations in the House today, and, interestingly enough, this bill ensures effective action can be taken in the event of fishery violations on our seas. I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Just to continue the theme from the Hon Rachel Brooking, who was the Minister in the previous Government responsible for this. This has been very much a work based on collaboration with successive Ministers and the Primary Production Committee coming up with something that is unanimously, I think, supported across the House. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is one of those global commons issues that we have to work with international partners to come up with a regulatory regime that works but, importantly, also the compliance machinery to make sure that we can actually make a difference.

It’s interesting to read that we pride ourselves in New Zealand on our vessels and our fleet following the rules, but there are reported instances of New Zealand vessels on the high seas actually operating outside the law, so to speak, so it’s very important that we get this fixed up.

The only other thing I would note is that the Hon David Parker gave a foreign policy speech in the Parliament this morning, and one of the things that he raised was, in the Pacific, it’s very important that New Zealand really steps up and works with Pacific nations on a number of fronts, particularly economic development. The sustainable and effective management of the fisheries resource to promote both the economic development of Pacific Island economies but also the proper stewardship of that resource is something that we need to really turn our minds to. I know that the current Minister for Oceans and Fisheries has worked in that space and, I’m sure, has a lot of views about it. Labour is happy to support this bill in its passage through the House.

Look, I rise to support the Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I’d like to acknowledge the Primary Production Committee; I was privileged to be part of the select committee as we navigated this very important bill through.

It was great to be able to talk about the value of our fishing industry to New Zealand, the $2.7 billion industry. Of course, the purpose to uphold the integrity of this very important industry that we wish to grow as well—so this bill is a very important part of that. We want to put New Zealand up on the global stage and meet our international obligations. With that, I commend it to the House.

Kia orana, Mr Speaker. I’ll join the chorus of support—the sort of unity at times around the House in supporting this bill. I do want to acknowledge the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, who is progressing this, including my colleague the Hon Rachel Brooking, when Labour introduced this back in August 2023. I had the privilege of sitting in on the Primary Production Committee. I’m not a member of that committee, but I did sit in for the purposes of hearing submissions on this bill.

When we have a look at the select committee report, which is usually what we do at this particular part of the process, at the second reading, it identifies that there were six submissions. So that’s not a huge number of submissions, but when we look at the nature of those submissions, they were well-thought-through; they were very representative; and, actually, it really demonstrates the power of the submissions process. I know the select committee report identified one particular submitter that focused on one issue, which comes to working-day times in terms of appeals and the legal process that has initiated the change as a result of that. I’ll tease it out a little bit when we get to the next stage of the committee, with the Minister; I’m sure he’ll be looking forward to that.

But this is a bill that is important to protect the high-value access that we have in markets when it comes to seafood. It is one that looks to provide a little bit more scoping around those three specific issues of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. And, in that context, I certainly support this bill.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise to take the last call in this reading of the illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing bill. Look, I think it makes perfect sense. I can sense bipartisan support across the House for this bill, which is good. The bill essentially requires permits for all fishing by New Zealand vessels outside New Zealand waters, which closes the gap that was there previously. We have to do our bit for sustainability and to look after our fisheries and those of our neighbouring nations. So with that, I commend the bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

This bill is set down for committee stage immediately. I declare the House in committee for the Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.

In Committee