ACT slams special privileges for vessels contracted by iwi

[Opo 182]

ACT slams special privileges for vessels contracted by Iwi
Friday, 26 July 2013
Press Release ACT Leader John Banks

ACT Leader John Banks today slammed the provision in the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill which provides a special exemption for a privileged few iwi quota holders from the requirement to use New Zealand flagged vessels by 2016.

“Labour and National propose to give some iwi quota holders special privileges so they can continue to use foreign charter vessels up to 2020, while other fishing companies will be forced out of business,” Mr Banks said.

“ACT is opposed to race-based legislation. Worse, this Bill pits iwi against iwi as not all Māori quota holders can get an exemption. The Bill is a mess.

“I sat on the Primary Production Select Committee and heard the complaints from the industry loud and clear. This is about jobs, it’s about foreign exchange earnings and it’s about businesses in the fishing industry being put at severe risk.

“There is no doubt that this Bill will destroy some small to medium fishing companies if they cannot use foreign charter vessels after 2016. And it’s obvious that iwi quota holders will not be able to get the return on their quota if they cannot use foreign charter vessels.

“The solution is not to create an exemption for a tiny number of iwi quota holders. The solution is to drop the re-flagging idea altogether.

“I have spoken to Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and he has given me an undertaking that he will review this provision. I have told him that ACT cannot vote for this Bill while this provision stands.

“If National won’t drop re-flagging, I have asked that the application for a general exemption be open to both Māori and non-Māori fishing interests,” Mr Banks said.

Outrageous
July 27th, 2013 at 1:00 pm by David Farrar

The Herald reports:

Maori fishing quota holders will be exempt from legislation designed to protect migrant workers on foreign chartered vessels from exploitation.

The seven-year exemption has been attacked as “privileged” by Act MP John Banks but defended as essential by the iwi involved.

I’m with John Banks on this. Some FCVs have been little more than slave ships, and it is repugnant we have allowed it to continue. I was very proud of the decision by the Government to require vessels which fish NZ quota to be flagged in NZ – which means NZ law will apply to them.

But the transition period should and must be the same for all.

Ngapuhi’s Sonny Tau, who is the spokesman for iwi chairmen around the country on the issue, said the 2020 exemption was essential because without it Maori fishing interests guaranteed under the Sealords deal would be severely devalued.

Not a single iwi could afford to buy a ship, which was why fishing ventures with foreign vessels were key, Mr Tau said.

“If you reduce the capacity and you take out foreign chartered vessels in this country … that will … drive down quota prices. It will become uneconomic for a lot of the smaller iwi to even open an office to be involved in fishing.”

The purpose of the fisheries settlement was to allow Iwi to develop fishing jobs, skills and income. Not to sub-contract the quota to slave ships.

Different industries have a variety of favourable and unfavourable market conditions. Fishing is no different.

Under the law change, NZ quota can still be fished by foreign crewed vessels. They just must be flagged in NZ. Under current NZ law they were required to pay NZ minimum pay rates anyway so in theory the flagging in NZ should not increase the costs – unless the FCVs have been breaking the law (which is clear)

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/07/outra ... ent-page-1

 

[Turny 1,224]

This is a Racing website

What is this crap doing on it??

Bring in the Sherrif please

[Opo 182]

This is a Racing website

What is this crap doing on it??

Bring in the Sherrif please

 

Correct me if I am wrong mr turdy, but I believe this 'Main Street' category of  RaceCafe is for general items of discussion.

However turdy I do sympathise with you as some of the posts are not a good look for biculturalists such as yourself and you only have your supremacist maori leaders to blame for that :-)  I only expose their ongoing racist bull$hit that is dividing the country. 

Hold on to yer hat turdy there are some big initiatives in the pipeline :-)

[STRAIGHT STRIKE 37]

This is a Racing website

What is this crap doing on it??

Bring in the Sherrif please

Turdy are you blind or do you have a blindfold on ? its definitely one or the other. Obviously you cant see the ones who are wearing Balaklavas.

Opo is exposing what many New Zealanders DONT wish to acknowledge, most have too many other personal issues to deal with to have the time to examine the facts and form a rational opinion.

Just look at many of the well researched topics Opo has exposed on continuing privilige to certain groups which is causing division and give it some serious thought.

[Turny 1,224]

Turdy are you blind or do you have a blindfold on ? its definitely one or the other. Obviously you cant see the ones who are wearing Balaklavas.

Opo is exposing what many New Zealanders DONT wish to acknowledge, most have too many other personal issues to deal with to have the time to examine the facts and form a rational opinion.

Just look at many of the well researched topics Opo has exposed on continuing privilige to certain groups which is causing division and give it some serious thought.

Come on old chap - you can do much better than the carry on nonsense with my name - you are really better than that, I thought

Turny

[Opo 182]

Fisheries bill exempts tribes

 

By Mike Butler

Sunday July 28 2013

 

A bill aimed at protecting workers on fishing boats in New Zealand waters has had a last-minute change at select committee stage that would exempt tribal quota owners, some of whom have been linked to some of the worst abuses of the system.

The Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which initially required all quota holders to use New Zealand-flagged vessels by 2016, was amended by parliament's primary production select committee to give the chief executive of the Ministry for Primary Industries the right to grant exemptions to operators whose catch entitlement is ''derived from settlement quota'' - a reference to Treaty of Waitangi settlements.

Glenn Simmonds, an Auckland university researcher who helped expose human rights abuses on foreign charter vessels, said the change “sanctions the continuation of forced labour” by “a privileged group of iwi quota fishers''. (1)

Forced labour is one aspect of abusive fishing practice by foreign charter vessels that includes overfishing, illegal dumping, and misreporting catch.......

 

........ A report on the Fairfax-owned Stuff news website, which included contributions from Michael Field who has covered the foreign charter vessels story for years, noted that last year several tribal corporations privately warned the Government that if they lost the rights to foreign charter vessels they would re-open the treaty fisheries settlement and seek $300-million in compensation for lost revenues. ......

 

Full article Here
 

 

[globederby12 1,495]

Come on old chap - you can do much better than the carry on nonsense with my name - you are really better than that, I thought

Turny

See Im not the only one who takes the piss with yr name Turney.

[Opo 182]

Why the special treatment?

 

OPINION: It is unseemly that an already slow-dawning law change to protect migrant workers on foreign chartered vessels in our seas will be even more slowly applied when those ships are in the service of iwi quota holders.

 

Cases of arrant bastardry on foreign fishing vessels, spanning to the early 1990s, have gradually gained the notoriety they deserve.

 

It went beyond illegal fishing - although there was more than just a bait of that - and extended to the abject mistreatment of crew members.

 

It was a disgrace and a shame to this nation.

 

This was happening in our waters, under our watch, and as part of contracts with some of our businesses.

 

We were complicit in treatment that amounted, at its worst, to virtual slavery.

 

The Government, to its credit, decided in May last year to require reflagging of foreign-owned boats, effectively putting them under our laws.

 

This also held not only the people on the boats, but also the domestic operators who chartered them, accountable.

 

Outstanding, we said. The only problem appeared to be the rather lengthy transition period which meant it would not truly kick in until 2016.

 

The reassurance that answered this was that in the meantime bridging measures would be applied.

 

A strengthened code of practice would improve the lot of the seamen and accountability of their employers by setting minimum remuneration and pay standards, and putting the burden of proof on the New Zealand charter party.

 

Yet nobody was pretending that those measures would in themselves suffice. A law change was still needed.

 

But now a select committee report into the new law has determined that there will be a special exemption for Maori quota holders that have fishing ventures with foreign vessels.

 

They would have until 2020. And why is this?

 

Apparently the 1992 Sealords Treaty deal has a sanctity of its own. One which means that what is effectively human rights legislation can just wait its patience.

 

Iwi take the view that the special treatment is essential because otherwise Maori fishing interests guaranteed under the Sealords deal would be severely devalued.

 

Makes you wonder why exactly this would be, though, if the pay and conditions of those on the vessels are already in line with the minimums set by our own laws.

 

If it is not, and the iwi profits are even partly coming on the back of poor treatment of foreign crews, then a bit of severe devaluation is entirely in order.

 

The criticism has already been levelled that, in any case, the idea behind the iwi fisheries settlement wasn't to empower the hiring of super-cheap foreign crews, but to develop jobs and skills among Maori.

 

ACT leader John Banks has sharply criticised what he calls the privileged treatment of some iwi quota holders in this matter, and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has acknowledged concerns of his own.

 

Good. Because as things stand this does appear to be requiring less of iwi than of others - and on an issue where nobody has an excuse to behave badly.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/8974376/Why-the-special-treatment

[jack 431]

Opo

Opo

Open Class - R121

• 
• Members
• 
• 1,051 posts

Posted Yesterday, 05:01 AM

turny, on 27 Jul 2013 - 9:55 PM, said:

This is a Racing website

What is this crap doing on it??

Bring in the Sherrif please

 

Correct me if I am wrong mr turdy, but I believe this 'Main Street' category of  RaceCafe is for general items of discussion.

However turdy I do sympathise with you as some of the posts are not a good look for biculturalists such as yourself and you only have your supremacist maori leaders to blame for that :-)  I only expose their ongoing racist bull$hit that is dividing the country. 

Hold on to yer hat turdy there are some big initiatives in the pipeline :-)

 

 

 

Here`s  heaven Ope ...

 

 

http://fightback.org.nz/

 

 

..

[Rambling_Kidd 160]

Who is ACT and why do we give a sh*te about them ?

[Opo 182]

From today's Mole News

 

Give our iwi a break – privilege is for Pakeha and what Maori are fishing for is simply an exemption

John Banks just doesn’t get it.

 

He fails to recognise that our indigenous people are special and should be treated accordingly.

 

That goes for their business activities, too.

 

And so there should be no surprise to find a select committee has recommended that Maori fishing quota

holders be exempt from legislation designed to protect migrant workers on foreign chartered vessels

from exploitation.

 

But according to the Herald (here), Banks fails to recognise that this is no more than special treatment

being properly recommended for our special people.

 

He calls it privilege.

 

The Herald report tells us that…....

Read Alf's full humourous article here > http://alfgrumblemp.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/give-our-iwi-a-break-privilege-is-for-pakeha-and-what-they-are-fishing-for-is-simply-an-exemption/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Opo 182]

Iwi exemption threatens NZ fisheries: Talley

Changes to a bill that will let iwi continue using "slave labour" to fish in deepwater are abhorrent and a scam, the owner of a leading New Zealand fishing company says.

If the bill becomes law New Zealand would face international boycotts of its fishing products, said Peter Talley, chief executive of Nelson-based Talley's Group.

"It is a national scandal that Maori, given settlement quota for the purpose of bringing young Maori into the business of fishing, are now given a preferential right to use Third World foreign labour to harvest those very resources," Talley said.

Under the redrafted Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which he called "racially biased legislation", 35 per cent of New Zealand's entire fishing resource, being iwi owned, could be fished by foreign charter vessels (FCV), Talley said.

After exposure of appalling human and labour rights abuses aboard FCVs, which mostly fish iwi quota, the Government last year introduced a bill that would require all fishing boats to be New Zealand-flagged by 2016.

But last week, the primary production select committee changed the bill to allow iwi with Treaty of Waitangi settlement quota the right to continue using FCVs.

Talley has strongly opposed FCVs and made submissions to the committee against them.
In a letter to Prime Minister John Key he called the change a scam perpetrated by foreign vessel owners.

"This situation will still allow them to cheat on wages and simply allow the vessel owners and their New Zealand agents to run up the drainpipes when being investigated ... for wage irregularities," Talley said.

"This exemption amendment means that forced labour has been legalised in New Zealand for all those companies utilising Maori quota."

He said a Korean vessel could go to sea with 1000 tons of Maori settlement quota and 4000 tons of non-Maori quota. "Is the entire 5000 tons able to be caught with a foreign-flagged vessel?"

What the select committee had done was a travesty, Talley said.

It was now only a distant hope that the use of slave labour in New Zealand would end, he added.
He noted US President Barack Obama had warned that those involved in slave use and human trafficking would face sanctions.

"We have received warnings from our own United States agents that they will not deal with New Zealand product unless the situation is corrected and we are aware that there are NGOs waiting in the wings to launch boycott programmes against New Zealand produce if FCV operations continue," Talley said.

"There's no place for floating sweatshops in the New Zealand fishery.

"I think most of Maoridom, especially those looking for and to create jobs, will find it abhorrent that Maori have special exemption to use foreign crew over New Zealanders."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8982068/Iwi-exemption-threatens-NZ-fisheries-Talley