2008 marks a busy year of fishing issues and economics
He Kororia ki te Atua
He maungarongo ki runga i te whenua
He whakaaro pai ki nga tangata katoa
Nga whakaaro ki a ratou kua wheturangitia, me ou ratou whanau i noho ai i raro i te kapua pouri. Nga manaakitanga
o te Atua ki runga i a tatou katoa.
There was no easy settling into the year ahead when Te Ohu Kaimoana returned from the Christmas-New Year holidays this January – 2008 kicked off with a hiss and a roar. As we emerge from the first quarter of the year, the policy work going forward is immense. Te Ohu Kaimoana is part of a working group to resolve the important shared fisheries issues, and is also looking closely at the Ministry of Fisheries' developments over changes to section 10 (well, now apparently section 13) of the Fisheries Act. These issues have the potential to have a significant effect on the value of the Maori Commercial Fisheries Settlement.
Our work continues on mandating the remaining nine iwi to ensure full allocation of the Maori Commercial Fisheries Settlement as soon as possible. We have now begun pushing through the coastline allocations as many iwi's neighbours have also become MIOs.
My staff has also been following up with a submission to the Department of Conservation on domestic trade in whalebone products, as well as continuing with our mandate of monitoring international developments regarding the sustainable use of marine mammals. Along with Te Ohu Kaimoana director Ngahiwi Tomoana, I attended the emergency meeting on the “Future of the International Whaling Commission”. Te Ohu Kaimoana has assisted by providing our Maori viewpoint to international mediator Professor Calestous Juma from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Professor Juma has been called in to assist IWC member countries, which include New Zealand, to find ways to move the IWC forward in finding ways to negotiate more useful outcomes in relation to the sustainable management of whale stocks.
Economically, New Zealand will have to fight off the effects, of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the cost of the war in Iraq, that have contributed to a recession in the United States. Rising fuel costs are also making it more difficult for the commercial fishing sector. However, the local economy is in reasonable condition and has full employment to help off-set negative effects from the U.S. Nonetheless, the commercial environment for the fishing industry is difficult.
Unfortunately, the environment is made even harder through recent comments by the Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton, who appears to have singled out Maori fisheries as being the plunderers of the oceans, when in fact that is not the case. Te Ohu Kaimoana, like all iwi, work to ensure the commercial industry acts in a sustainable manner. Our over-riding principle is sustainability and we live by that on a daily basis. To suggest otherwise is inherently wrong.
I believe the Government needs to look again at the relationship it has with us Maori, and I will be working over the next few months to see how this can be improved.
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Tiakina ngā rawa hi ika, a tātou kaimoana mo ngā uri whakaheke
Protecting Māori fisheries assets for future generations