Marine farmers rest easy with new legislation

Proposed aquaculture legislation will at last provide increased certainty for Marlborough's marine farmers, the Marine Farming Association says.

Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope met the association, together with the Aquaculture Council and the Marlborough Economic Development Trust, on Friday to discuss the new bill, which had its first reading in Parliament last week.

Afterwards, representatives said they were now satisfied that serious concerns regarding the law reforms had been addressed.

The bill is expected to be passed under urgency this week.

Association chief executive Graeme Coates said the select committee process had been useful.

"Parts of the bill tabled in October gave us a large amount of concern, and what's come out now has addressed a large number of those issues," he said.

"After talking with David, we're pretty satisfied that the guys are going to be able to continue working on their sites without being under threat of their sites being taken away or used in a treaty [of Waitangi] settlement. Both of these issues have more or less disappeared off the horizon."

Under the new legislation, property rights would be strengthened, eliminating the possibility of gazumping. In the case of renewal of marine farm applications, the incumbent would have the first right of refusal and the council could only over-ride this if it was absolutely necessary.

Improvements had been made in the mechanisms for dealing with the allocation of 20 per cent of marine farm space allocated since 1992 to Maori, in a way that removed bureaucracy for applicants and councils.

"The industry has never been opposed to the fisheries issues of the treaty settlement," said Coates.

"We've always accepted using marine farms - but we've always said it should be done on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis. Don't confiscate existing farms and give them to someone else."

Under the new legislation, councils would not need to hand over 20 per cent of a particular farm. They would have several other options available to them, including building new aquaculture management areas (AMAs), or giving cash equivalent to Maori.

Benson-Pope said the meeting had gone well and he was happy with the legislation.

"To the best of my advice, we think things are looking pretty good. We've ticked off all the major concerns people have had and now we want the bill passed quickly so when the moratorium comes off on December 31 all the rules are in place for how the industry can move forward."

- NZPA