He kororia ki te Atua
He maungarongo ki runga i te whenua
He whakaaro pai ki nga tangata katoa

Te Kawai Taumata will meet on 1 November this year to consider two positions on the board of Te Ohu Kai Moana Trustee Limited currently held by Sonny Tau and Fred Cookson.

Te Kawai Taumata is the Electoral College and its role is to appoint directors to Corporate Trustee for Te Ohu Kai Moana Trust. Mr Tau and Mr Cookson have served one four-year term and are able to seek reappointment for a second term.

In May this year, the Electoral College appointed three new members – Matiu Rei, Hinerangi Raumati and Jamie Tuuta – and re-appointed one existing member, Rikirangi Gage, to the board.

Te Kawai Taumata Members are: Naida Glavish (Chairman) representing Taitokerau; Na Raihania (Deputy Chairman) Takitimu; Graeme Morrell, Ngapuhi; Chris McKenzie, Tainui; Willie Emery, Te Arawa Waka; Tamati Cairns, Mataatua; Api Mahuika, Porourangi; Sam Tamarapa, Hauauru; Ngarongo Iwikatea Nicholson, Te Moana o Raukawa; Maui Solomon, Waipounamu/Rekohu; Sharyn Watene, Representative Maori.

More than half of the submissions to the Ministerial Inquiry into the use of foreign chartered vessels (FCVs) in New Zealand’s deepwater fishery support their continued use, and outline the likely negative results if they were to be removed from our economy.

Te Ohu Kaimoana’s submission tells the inquiry that FCVs make a valuable contribution to the 57 iwi organisations around the country that were recipients of fisheries quota through major settlements with the Crown in 1989 and 1992.

“The use of FCVs allows iwi organisations to make rational decisions on the best options for extracting value from their quota within the regulatory framework to achieve long-term sustainability and stability,” Te Ohu Kaimoana CEO Peter Douglas told the panel on Monday.

For high-volume, low value species such as Squid, Barracouta, Jack Mackerel, Southern Blue Whiting and others, all quota owners – Maori and non-Maori – utilised FCVs to harvest the catch. The scenario was the opposite for high-value species, most of which is generally caught by New Zealand-owned vessels.

The majority of iwi are at the low end of the spectrum of quota ownership. If larger fishing companies already involved in harvesting and processing find that it is uneconomic to fish the lower-value, high-volume deepwater stocks, it is difficult to see how iwi quota holders could be expected to do so with their smaller parcels of quota, he told the panel.

A review undertaken by Te Ohu Kaimoana of the amounts of fish harvested by FCVs, either through joint venture arrangements, long-term ACE contracts or annual tender processes, demonstrates that only a minor share of the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) for FCV target species was from iwi-owned settlement quota. See Table here.

Removing the use of FCVs in the fishing industry would reduce the competition for ACE, which would have the result of driving down returns on investment. ACE prices would be negatively affected if iwi had no option but to purchase more expensive catching capacity.

This view was supported by Ngati Kahungunu iwi which said that by removing or restricting FCVs, Asset Holding Companies which sell ACE would have far fewer options for buyers and would receive significantly lower ACE prices. “This would in turn lead to ACE buyers being able to access ACE at lower prices and increase their profits. It has been estimated that the removal of FCV’s could reduce deepwater ACE values by more than 30%, resulting in increased benefits to the large companies, reduced returns to Iwi quota owners thereby devaluing the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Settlement,” the iwi said in its submission.

Ngati Kahungunu said it was been dismayed by the misleading information campaign orchestrated by a few large companies, whose aim appears to be to reduce competition for ACE.

The Iwi Collective Partnership said FCVs allowed the partnership to provide a “different competitive alternative” allowing it to make rational decisions about vessel ownership. “Even if the ICP had the necessary capital to purchase a vessel there would be massive risks and challenges involved in the operation and management of the vessel.”

Our understanding is that there are already sufficient regulations in place to manage FCV operations. We believe that it is simply a case of the appropriate New Zealand agencies dealing with and enforcing those regulations appropriately, the ICP said.

Mr Douglas told the panel that unsubstantiated allegations in the media about FCVs keeping fishers in “slave labour” conditions, combined with assertions that Maori interests are a major cause of the “problem”, was not accepted by iwi organisations who consider the allegations unjustified and unfair.

Te Ohu Kaimoana’s submission can be downloaded here.

Click here to download the submissions from Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated and the Iwi Collective Partnership.

The Seafood Industry Council’s comprehensive submission can be downloaded here.