Trout farms excluded

Press, 26 May 1981, Page 12

Trout farms excluded

Nelson reporter

No trout farming; no total exclusion of Russians from the New Zealand economic fishing zone; no separate fishing portfolio; summarises the answers of Sir Basil Arthur, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, to questions put to him at Nelson about the fishing industry

Because of storms in Wellington and the resulting disruption of air traffic from the capital, Sir Basil was unable to attend the function at which Labour’s fishing policy was disclosed.

His speech was read by the Labour candidate for Nelson, Mr Philip Woollaston, and then for an hour, through amplifier equipment connected by telephone to Parliament. Buildings, Sir Basil answered questions. Sir Basil said there was division in the party on whether Labour would permit trout farming, but the biggest body of opinion at present was against it. The references in Sir Basil’s speech to the Russians and other foreign interests selling fish on international markets at prices lower than that for fish caught in New Zealand waters were taken up by Mr Chris Sharp of the Nelson Fishermen’s Society He asked if a Labour Government would expel the Rus-

sians from the economic zone. “We would not exclude all Russian vessels from the zone but certainly there will be tagged licences. There will be conditions that they will have to comply with if they are going to continue to fish within the zone,” he said. “We have a lot of trade with Russia at present but we would have to be assured that some of the restrictive practices that prevail with Russia and other countries when it comes to purchasing fish from New Zealand that have been processed ’ here, will havh) to go if the Russians expect to continue to fish in the ’ joint venture

schemes or tinder foreign licence,” he said. Those boats which did not comply with the conditions of the licences would lose them or have them limited, he said. Mr Sharp said he was dissatisfied with the reply. The fishing industry’s big concern was that the fishery was being sold out to foreigners as a trade for the country’s agricultural products. How could Labour en-

sure that fish could not be sold cheaply by the Russians?

It might appear to some extent that agricultural trade was being made with these countries in exchange for fishing licences.

“We are very concerned with getting rid of the restrictions on the New Zealand fishing industry and Russia is one of the main offenders,” he said. Russia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan were all offenders. These restrictions must go, he said. Mr Garth Butler, managing director of the T.NX. group, said that one of the biggest problems in New Zealand was that there were too many independent marketing organisations which appeared to be continuously having cash flow problems. The result was their product was: dumped oft themarket at am iftffated value. • He suggested the answer to this was an underwriting structure for the New Zea-< land product- so that when a . company had a serious cash flow problem it could' be funded by the Government to. sustain price levels. There was much validity 1 in the point, said Sir Basil. He recalled that 10 years previously he had suggested the formation of a fish marketing board but this was strongly opposed by some of the then major fishing companies. "If we could get a measure ' of agreement among the processors and fishing industry generally along these lines, then certainly a Labour ■. government would be in- ' terested in taking the matter up again.”