Freshwater fisheries ‘separate’

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 4

Freshwater fisheries ‘separate’

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Mounting evidence of the unworkability of the freshwater fisheries section of the Maori Fisheries Bill is leading to a growing expectation that this will be dropped.

The decision will be made by the Parliamentary select committee considering the bill, but the Government has been presented with evidence.

The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, said it was for the select committee to recommend on the contents of the bill and not for the Cabinet to prejudice the work of the select committee. “We believe the freshwater fisheries clauses would make a hell of a mess of the South Island,” said Mr Tipene O’Regan, one of the four Maori negotiators.

For example, the plans to augment the water supplies of the Opihi River in South Canterbury by diverting the waters of Lake Tekapo — a step needed to restore the river as a major fishing river and one supported by Maoris — would no longer be possible. Freshwater fisheries were an entirely separate issue from saltwater fisheries and should be taken out of the bill. He said the Maori negotiators and Crown negotiators had agreed on that as long ago as last February. Now freshwater fisheries were back in the bill again and proving a bone of contention. The Maori negotiators thought that was the result of administrative accident rather than Ministerial intent, Mr O’Regan said.