KEY POINTS:
Legislation is to be introduced shortly to fix up messy aquaculture laws that have resulted in no new areas being opened up for marine farming.
The industry has complained about the shambolic state of the industry since the Government first intervened in 2001, fearing a "goldrush" in marine farms would ruin the aquatic environment.
A moratorium on applications between 2001 and 2004 was lifted in 2005 with the intention that applications could only be made into designated management areas.
Since then no new aquaculture areas have been set up and also the courts threw a spanners in the works when ruling aquaculture activities could be allowed outside designated management areas.
The then environment minister David Benson-Pope said last year the Environment Court ruling seriously impacts on major elements of legislation such as the creation of management areas, allocation of space to iwi, testing for effects on fisheries, tendering and private plan changes.
A select committee report on the Fisheries Ministry released today said MPs were aware that aquaculture could expand from a $300 million industry to a $1 billion industry but it faced "major challenges".
One of these was processing applications before the moratorium was put into place.
"Since the lifting of the moratorium at the end of 2004, the ministry has been clearing away outstanding applications," the report said.
This led to a 31 per cent increase in marine farms, or 1736 hectares approved by the ministry under the old law since 2006.
There are still 21 applications covering 12,000 hectares to be considered.
The report noted the lack of new areas being designated and noted that Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton was concerned the Auckland Regional Council had proposed a blanket ban on further marine farms.
The Government announced a moratorium on new marine farm consents at the end of 2001, when fears grew that existing law and planning mechanisms were not coping with a "goldrush" of applications, particularly in the Marlborough Sounds.
Then fisheries minister Pete Hodgson said the regulatory framework for marine farms was out-dated, complicated and dysfunctional. His moratorium followed a call by environmental lobbyists for a boycott of greenshell mussels in response to the race for space.
Then aquaculture was caught up in the political row over the foreshore and seabed issue - which also sidelined the Government's Oceans Policy - and Mr Hodgson extended the moratorium to December 2004. Marine farmers frustrated by the extension claimed their industry was being stifled.
By December 2004, the Government passed the Aquaculture Reform Act, which allocated to Maori 20 per cent of marine farming allocated since 1992 and 20 per cent of any new space. Maori sources said 20 per cent of marine farming space allocated since 1992 was worth about $50 million.
The mussel industry complained the Act constrained the siting of new mussel farms almost as much as if they were proposals for dumping radioactive nuclear waste.
- NZPA
