Govt offers fishing deal

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 1

Govt offers fishing deal

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington A final solution to the Maori fisheries claim has been offered by the Crown and is being com sidered by Maori fisheries representatives. It involves the Government’s buying back individual quotas from commercial fishermen and, subject to certain qualifications, handing them over to Maori interests. The process would take more than 20 years to complete, the Government buying 2 per cent of the quota each year. That would leave the resource still owned by the Crown but split between commercial and Maori fishing interests on a ratio still to be determined. This Crown offer has not been accepted by Maori fishing representatives, and has certainly not been accepted by commercial

fishermen. It would make Maori and, nonMaori fishermen equal/before the law, and that in turn would require changes to the fisheries legislation. If itis/iot acceptable to all might involve court proceedings as well. > The Crown proposal was put at a special meeting convened by the Government on Tuesday. The Government was represented by four Cabinet Ministers — the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer; the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Prebble; the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere; and the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle. • It proposed that the Government buy back up to 2.5 per cent of the commercial individual transferable quotas each year that fishermen or fishing companies wanted to sell. To page 5