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Straight talking to the fishing industry

22 May 2007 - Excerpts from "Sustainability Issues for Fishing" speech by Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton at the New Zealand Seafood Industry Conference at Te Papa, Wellington

Thank you for the opportunity to join you again for your conference. I have a simple message for you today: Our fishing industry has an exciting future; but it has to confront some difficult issues to maximise the opportunities ahead.

Fishing in New Zealand has twin long-term challenges: Development of the industry to realise its strong commercial potential. And ensuring our development is sustainable, so that our resource is managed for today and tomorrow.

Both the future profitability and the ongoing sustainability of the industry need to be addressed together; that's only going to happen through constructive, forward looking relationships with the government and across the industry.

I am not going to pretend it is all champagne and roses in getting to where we want to go. In fact, I think we need to lift our act by being realistic about the challenges we need to meet and in making serious efforts to find solutions we can all accept.

I want to be very clear about where the opportunities exist - about where we need to do better, faster. And I'm warning that I'm disappointed with progress in some sectors. If you think I'm going to leave it there, you don't know me very well. The overall context is good. The world market for seafood is thriving. As world demand grows, demand for our exports will grow. Fishing is seven times bigger today than it was twenty years ago. Our seafood exports are worth over $3 million a day to New Zealand.

I know exporting businesses aren't helped by the high value of the dollar, high interest rates and fuel costs. In some ways the New Zealand economy has been a victim of its own success. Over the last seven years as we've powered through the longest continuous period of economic growth in decades, some imbalances have arisen. Domestic demand is racing ahead of our export receipts.

The government is doing what it can to meet those challenges - for example, running strong fiscal surpluses, saving through the National Superannuation Fund and now introducing Kiwisaver. These initiatives will help to divert domestic demand from spending to saving, make more capital available for business and take pressure off inflation, interest rates and the dollar.

In the budget last week, we cut business tax for the first time in twenty years. We introduced the most comprehensive package of research and development incentives, export market development and international investment tax reforms in a generation.

These measures will make a substantial difference over the long haul.
But anyone who thinks there are short-term solutions to the issues is telling tall fishing tales.

And we can't do much about the low US dollar or high international fuel prices. Instead, we have to get on with meeting our long-term challenges.

I'm being frank today: We need to do better at pulling together to achieve both development and sustainability.

Everyone has to give something. I'll turn to some specifics in a moment. But first I want to recap some of our successes from co-operating. I am encouraged by the positive successes we have had where the industry has worked well and co-operatively, and worked in partnership with the government. In aquaculture, Benthic Protection Areas, the Deepwater Memorandum of Understanding and the paua fishery - these are examples we can build on.

It's worth recapping these, because they show the way we need to go in other areas. Aquaculture, for example, has a big part to play in our future and the sector has produced a compelling strategy. It's vision is to create a billion dollar industry by 2025. I think the vision is realistic.

To give you an idea of the rate of global growth - a United Nations study said demand for seafood around the world would grow by a third over the next ten years. There are not enough fish in the sea to meet the demand, so the rapidly expanding demand will have to be met from fish farming.

I was in Tokyo last month and I went to see the Tsukiji [sue–key-gee] fish market. It's the biggest seafood market in the world - in fact one of the world's largest food markets of any kind, selling everything from sardines to tuna and caviar. Seven hundred thousand tonnes of seafood a year are handled by the market - worth close to ten billion New Zealand dollars. Forty-four percent of the market's produce - nearly half of it - is from aquaculture. That's just in one - very large - market - and there are another eighty-seven markets in Japan alone.

So this is a sector with an exciting future, and the government is engaging with it. When Aquaculture New Zealand is launched next month, on the 7th of June, the government will release its response to the sector strategy.

In the meantime, we've been very active. When I was Minister of Economic Development and the aquaculture industry needed a strategy to chart a future course for the sector, the Government provided $112,000 to develop one.

Last year when a new industry body was required to implement the strategy the Government provided a further $70,000 to get this off the ground.

Last year the Government allocated $2.9m for assisting the aquaculture industry and Regional Councils to progress aquaculture management areas through the planning process.

We set up a ministers' group and ministry chief executives’ group to oversee the work of government departments on aquaculture. We will also set up a regular forum where central and local government and industry leaders can discuss aquaculture growth at senior levels.

So the government is playing its part. And when we look at some of the details, there is more to think about. National standards will be one of the pillars of the aquaculture sector's development. Why? Because it suits our industry to be able to demonstrate we have world class standards of industry and environmental management.

Consumers are demanding it; and if consumers want it - and we can show we are achieving high standards while other countries can't - then that will help our industry as a whole. There is no point in joining a race to the bottom. There is nothing in that for New Zealand long term.

We can achieve a premium and avoid being punished by international markets if we have standards in place that show strong commitment to the sound environmental management of our fishery. This is not just theoretical. This is a shark that is already circling our boat.

When I was in Europe last year the hot issue was carbon costs and 'food miles' - targeting the carbon used in transporting food long distances. Clearly, as the world's most remote food producer, we have to respond to these issues and get ahead of the game.

Concerns over food miles and the like are also an opportunity for us. Last month, Ireland’s Minister for Fisheries expressed strong support for initiatives to ensure that fish products sold in Europe carry eco-friendly labelling. This is an opportunity for New Zealand, because we can show that our products are eco-friendly. We can claim to be as ecologically careful as any nation on earth.

National standards will be part of the package of our response. The aquaculture industry made national standards one of the pillars of its strategy for development, and I see this as a sign of a far-sighted, encouraging and realistic approach. It's a good example of where the industry and government can work together.

I want this lesson to be studied in other areas. The Ministry has recently completed consultation on three standards and is about to begin consultation on the next batch.

I know there have been industry concerns. I want to make it clear that whether or not we have standards will not be up for debate. Standards are an integral part of objectives based fisheries management. That is the way we are going to manage fisheries in the future, so standards are here to stay.

There is room for debate around development and setting of standards. But it's a waste of everyone's time to debate whether standards should exist at all.
Standards benefit the industry. Standards make Government bottom lines transparent. Standards give you more certainty about what you have to achieve.

The devil is in the detail and we need to pay careful attention to ensuring the standards that are put in place achieve what we want at least possible cost. This is where your input is important. I urge you and the rest of industry to make the most of your opportunity to contribute to their development.

I believe the government is being a very constructive partner in engaging with the industry. We demonstrated that in the recent, pioneering Benthic Protection Areas initiative. It will see a diverse range of New Zealand’s underwater habitats protected from bottom-trawling and dredging. Through this one initiative, we will protect thirty percent of our seabed. It took many decades to achieve something similar on land. This is a substantial leap forward for marine protection and I congratulate the industry for its responsible attitude.

And while I have some tough messages today for the industry - I also believe this settlement shows the need for others with a view about fisheries to show some goodwill too. I was not impressed with criticism by some NGOs of the Benthic initiative. When the industry takes proactive steps, it deserves recognition and support. I am disappointed that some groups - including some of my parliamentary colleagues - behaved fanatically, rather than welcoming this pleasing development.

When I say I want everyone with a stake in fishing to work co-operatively, I mean *everyone*, not just the industry. Those who don't are not being responsible and not helping anyone – not even themselves.

Full speech at http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=29460