The fishing industry remains divided on a package of reforms aimed at tackling the abuse of workers and quota allocations on some foreign charter vessels (FCV).
The Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which is working its way through the Primary Production select committee, looks to force all foreign charter vessels to be reflagged as New Zealand vessels.
The move, if passed into law, would put foreign vessels under the control of New Zealand labour laws, potentially preventing a repeat of the abuses which occurred on the Oyang 75 in 2011.
Four officers of the Korean vessel were found to have dumped fish, and alleged to have abused their Indonesian crew, who walked off the boat in protest. The vessel had been chartered by New Zealand company Southern Storm Fishing Ltd.
Speaking to the Primary Production select committee, Peter Tally, managing director of Talley’s Group, applauded the bid and urged lawmakers to speed up its implementation requiring all crew to be employed by the New Zealand-flagged vessel.
He said banning the 25 FCVs that operate in New Zealand waters would go a long way to ending the abuses seen on boats such as the Oyang 75, and create as many as 2000 jobs for Kiwi workers.
The group is also calling for rules making it mandatory to employ a fixed number of New Zealanders onboard fishing vessels, who would act as informal watchdogs for any abuse of health and safety laws or quotas.
The Talley’s Group fleet is entirely made up of New Zealand-flagged fishing boats.
Chief executive of Sealord Group, Graham Stuart, welcomed the aim behind the bill, but said reflagging was overly onerous to the industry, and punished FCVs that had never broken the law.
Sealord runs four FCVs, three crewed with Ukrainian and Chilean workers, and one with New Zealanders.
Stuart stressed that these vessels had always obeyed the law, and in some cases were far more productive and efficient that the firm’s own New Zealand-run boat.
The firm asked lawmakers to consider “deeming” a vessel instead of reflagging it, effectively putting it under New Zealand legal jurisdiction for a set period.
That would allow firms like Sealord the flexibility to use FCV for seasonal and exploratory fishing without undue impact on the balance sheet.
Representatives from the Fisheries Inshore New Zealand, meanwhile, maintain the proposed regulations would be unfairly applied to its members, where cases of FCV abuse have never been found.
The group is calling for the laws to reflect evidence based approach as opposed to a risk management approach currently favoured in the draft.
2013 Fairfax New Zealand Limited