Interim plan for Maori fisheries

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 3

Interim plan for Maori fisheries

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

An interim arrangement on Maori fisheries’ claims and access has been agreed to by all parties to the Maori fisheries legislation.

The details of this arrangement have taken the form of a Crown submission to the special parliamentary select committee considering the Maori Fisheries Bill introduced last September. The submission was presented to the select committee at its meeting in Auckland yesterday and sets out the details of the interim arrangement which the parties have agreed to. Its intention is to facili-

tate the entry of Maoris to the business and activity of fishing. It will apply for four years and during that time quotas up to 2.5 per cent a year will be made available to Maoris. The submission said the arrangement took the concerns of the fishing industry into account. It also provided an assurance to the Crown that it would be able to discharge its duty to con-

serve and manage fisheries. The arrangement deletes a provision for the compulsory acquisition of fish quotas, to which the Fishing Industry Association objected strenuously at its annual meeting in Wellington last week r Present trading trends suggested that the Crown would be able to acquire the 10 per cent of the quotas required during the next four years on the open market to add to the quotas already held by

the Crown, the submission said. About $lO million would be available from the Crown to facilitate Maori entry into fishing. Because a permanent solution had not been reached on Maori fisheries’ claims, access to the courts and Waitangi Tribunal had to remain open, the submission said. That process might take years, which was why four years had been set for the interim arrangement.