E nga iwi o nga hau e wha, nga rangatira kua tae mai nei ki te tautoko tenei kaupapa tena koutou katoa.

It is a great pleasure to be here tonight and to be able to play a part in the first national conference of the Regional Iwi Forum Chairs.

Fishing is something that is very important to New Zealand and to all New Zealanders.  

It is an important part of the lifestyle that we enjoy here, a lifestyle that is the envy of many people in many other parts of the world.

Our fisheries are an incredibly valuable asset for our country and they are highly valued by all the groups who make use of them and take a catch.

I acknowledge Maori's interest in every sector - recreational, customary and commercial.

The sea has been a food basket for many generations and is still vitally important for the well being of iwi and hapu.

Our fish stocks support a high quality recreational fishery.

Very large numbers of New Zealanders fish recreationally, me amongst them.

Fishing, whether it is catching snapper with a rod and reel, diving for paua or gathering tuatuas at low tide is part of being a kiwi.

Our fisheries also support an important commercial industry - an industry that employs tens of thousands of people and is one of our largest export earners, bringing in over $1.3 billion dollars a year.

This is vital foreign exchange that we need to pay our way in the world.

Maori have customary rights to gather kaimoana and a right, as tangata whenua, to be involved in the management of our fisheries.

The 1992 Fisheries Deed of Settlement, settling Maori fisheries claims under the Treaty of Waitangi, is a foundation for fisheries management in our country.

The Deed of Settlement secured the future of New Zealand's quota management system and has allowed it to become the world class, internationally recognised management system it is today.

How the government works with Maori

However, how the settlement has been implemented has presented both the Crown and Maori with some challenges.

There have been some tensions within iwi and within Maoridom between the commercial side and the customary side, and tension about how iwi fisheries interests should be represented and managed.

Maori do not have a single, national body to represent absolutely all their fisheries rights and to engage with the Crown on how our fisheries should be managed.

Whether such a body is developed or not is entirely up to you.

However, it's very helpful for me if customary and commercial groups can have ongoing conversations between themselves and where possible agree.

I would far prefer for Maori to recognise the issues they face and coordinate an approach to them, rather than leaving a vacuum for the government to fill.

Do you really trust us to get it perfectly right if we're left to make the decision?

I would love to see the customary and the commercial side of iwi and hapu speak together with one voice for the benefit of all.

River management

This is applicable to rivers as much as it is to the sea.

You will know that as Minister I have to make decisions on freshwater fish species and aquatic plants as well as marine fisheries.

We have multiple hapu and iwi with river interests in this country, but the fish don't know that.

The fish don't swim, breed and feed up and down the river aware of customary oversight.

They don't know where the hapu boundaries are.

That's why it's important to me that neighbouring hapu work together on a whole of river level, and not just make fisheries management decisions on the stretch of interest to their marae.

Mataitai

And the same can be said of how we move forward with mataitai.

Maori are asking for unprecedented levels of ocean closure to commercial fishing.

I would very much appreciate Maori discussing the future of mataitai applications within the spirit of the deed of settlement and come back to me with their thoughts.

Personally, I believe the intent of the mataitai concept was for hapu to set aside small and discrete, traditional fishing grounds that are associated with coastal marae for focussed management.

Applications for many, many square kilometres don't fit that description, although I acknowledge they may fit the current regulations and could very well be approved.

I would appreciate you giving some thought to whether the regulations - your regulations, because it's your settlement - need addressing so they better reflect the settlement's intent.

Maybe you too have concerns; perhaps you don't.

But be assured, I won't be moving on the issue without your thoughts and support.

I need your thoughts and support because they are your regulations.

I believe that it is far better for Maori to come together to discuss and make clear the priorities between their different fisheries rights - rather than leaving it to me to second guess.

This is not going to be easy, but I am quite sure the benefits of achieving it will be worth the effort.

That you have all come together here, some travelling from a very long way away, speaks volumes about the importance of this task and your commitment to achieving it, and I congratulate you for that.

October sustainability decisions

Effectively managing our fisheries is my core responsibility as Minister of Fisheries, and it's something I know you take very seriously as well.

We want to maximise the benefits from the use of our fisheries within environmental limits.

This aim has flowed through to a range of management decisions I have made recently.

At the end of September I announced my decisions on changes to catch limits for the fishing year starting on the first of October.

These decisions covered a range of species in the inshore area and the deepwater.

What I have done when making these decisions is focus on two things.

The first, and something that is at the heart of every decision I make, is making sure that sustainability is protected.

The question I always ask is "what will this do to ensure the health of fish stocks?"

The second thing I do is focus on all available information.

Catch information and recreational research

The best information we have available is not perfect though; in some areas it is patchy at best.

Finding ways to improve the information I have available to me is something I am very keen to do.

Commercial fishers have to report all of their catch in a lot of detail and provide that information to government regularly.

I want to thank the customary sector for making great strides in the reporting of customary fishing activity every quarter.

In fact this year we have gone from receiving about 40% of the reports we are supposed to get to receiving over 95% of reports.

I would like to congratulate you and your kaitiaki on this achievement; I know there are people here who have been instrumental in making this happen.

Having the best information I can get on customary catch is a great help to me when I have to make difficult catch limit decisions.

It means I can be comfortable that the allocations I set are going to meet customary needs, and it gives me more confidence that the Total Allowable Catch is going to be sustainable into the future.

Recreational regulations

You may be interested to know I recently announced changes to regulations that will be of great benefit to recreational fishers.

Recreational divers will be allowed to catch crayfish with cray lassoes - or cray loops - provided they are not spring loaded.

I have also approved a new minimum size for paua in the Taranaki region.

Paua in Taranaki are naturally small and usually don't grow to the minimum size of 125mm like in other parts of the country.

These were practical and common sense changes and have been made in areas where the information we have suggests they can be made sustainably.

I know there was some local iwi concern about this opening up of the Taranaki fishery, however, based on the science I am confident there is enough paua in the fishery for everyone.

Paua accumulation

In another important change to the regulations, a new accumulation limit has been put in place for paua nationwide.

Recreational fishers cannot accumulate more than two daily bag limits of 10 paua per person per day.

That is 20 paua per person in the freezer at any one time.

Properly authorised customary fishing is not included in the new limit; for legitimate customary fishing it will be business as usual.

This new rec rule is about targeting paua poachers.

These are criminal groups who are ripping off a natural resource that should be available for those who use it responsibly and legally.

This is theft; all New Zealanders are the victims.

This is not designed to target or penalise legitimate fishers and I think it strikes the balance of allowing legal, responsible fishing while tightening the noose on poachers.

Budget initiatives

I am pleased that in our first Budget I was able to secure funding for more fishery officers and honorary fishery officers patrolling New Zealand's coastline.

A boost of over $4 million over the next four years will increase the honorary fishery officer network and the full time fishery officers needed to support it. 

The plan is to build the honorary fishery officer network from 172 to 250 and full-time fishery officer numbers from 95 to 104 over the next four years.

The Budget has also given almost $2 million over four years to get the aquaculture industry moving.

The aquaculture industry has languished under an inefficient regulatory regime for too long and we are going to get things moving.

I am really excited about the possibilities for aquaculture; for creating wealth for the country to boost our economy and for creating exciting career opportunities for young people, especially in the regions.

Aquaculture settlement

An excellent case study for how issues between Maori and the Crown might be addressed was the early financial settlement of the Crown's aquaculture pre-commencement space obligations to the iwi of Te Wai Pounamu and the Hauraki Coromandel regions.

This was a fantastic example of what can be accomplished by working together.

Iwi and the Crown worked hard and came up with an agreed joint settlement on the sort of scale we haven't seen before.

It meets the Crown's obligations, gets financial resources to iwi and hapu as quickly as possible and gives more certainty to the aquaculture industry.

It was a great pleasure for me to be able to sign this Deed of Settlement on behalf of the Crown.

I know some of the people here played a large part in this achievement.

Richard Bradley and the leaders of Te Tau Ihu, Ngai Tahu and the Hauraki Maori Trust Board, and also Peter Murray from the Ministry of Fisheries who has been here talking to you today about the review of the Ministry's service delivery obligations to Maori.

I have also extended the opportunity for an early settlement to the rest of the country and I have invited the remaining iwi to engage with the Crown to fulfil the aquaculture settlement in their rohe.

There is already a strong Maori presence in aquaculture; I hope we are going to see that presence grow and strengthen in the coming years.

Tangata Kaitiaki appointments

You may also be interested to know I am being asked to confirm the appointment of an ever increasing number of Tangata Kaitiaki. 

It is good to see Maori increasingly moving from managing their customary fisheries under the amateur fishing regulations to the customary fishing regulations; regulations that whakapapa to the 1992 fisheries settlement with Maori.

I encourage you all here today to pick-up on the advantages that the customary fishing regulations provide.  Primarily they allow you to manage your customary fisheries according to your own tikanga.

In areas where the nomination of Tangata Kaitiaki have been disputed, and there are a number around the North Island, I encourage you, as leaders, to work through the objections so that I can confirm the appointment of Tangata Kaitiaki for further areas. 

I know there are iwi leaders here today from Rekohu / Wharekauri, so I just want to acknowledge your recent attempts to bring your people under the customary fishing regulations. 

I look forward to receiving advice on your nominations in due course.

Conclusion

There is a lot of work going on at the moment and there is more to come; it has certainly been a busy first year as Minister.

This conference and having all of you together to do important work on better aligning the various iwi and hapu fisheries interests starts another important process.

I am looking forward to ramping up my work with you and I am eager to get more accomplished.

We all want the same thing, fish for us to catch today and fish for our grandchildren and their grandchildren to catch in the future.

It's a pleasure to be here this evening and I wish you all the best for the rest of your conference.

No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.