National Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller presents petition against reef fishing ban

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller presenting to the Select Committee via Zoom. Photo / supplied

"A simply appalling process that borders on a miscarriage of justice."

That's how Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller has described the series of court cases that led to the fishing ban on several Motiti Island reefs.

Muller presented to Parliament's Environment Select Committee on April 13 regarding his petition to review the proposed ban.

According to Parliament's website, his petition - which had 916 signatures - requested "the House of Representatives urgently review the proposed ban on fishing on the Astrolabe Reef and pass legislation to ensure that the Ministry of Fisheries has primacy over protecting coastal fish stocks".

Muller called for "the reopening of consultation over the closure of diving, anchoring and fishing access to the Astrolabe, Okarapu, Brewis Shoal, Schooner, and Plate Reefs off Motiti Island".

The court case began in 2016, with a Motiti Rohe Moana Trust bringing a challenge to the Environment Court to use the Resource Management Act to impose a fishing ban on Motiti reefs.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller presenting to the Select Committee via Zoom. Photo / supplied

The subsequent cases went all the way to the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the applicants.

Muller told the committee that "it is our [his and the petitioners'] view that this legal challenge .... was driven by a dissatisfaction by some that the Fisheries Act was not being used in a way that some in the community wanted, particularly around constraining fishing in popular fishing spots".

Muller's particular issue with the process was the lack of consultation with Te Patuwai Tribal, Motiti's tangata whenua.

"Only the Crown, the regional council, and three peak commercial fishing bodies were party to the [legal] proceedings," he said.

"There was no opportunity at all for wider affected parties, especially the recreational fishers, to have their say or provide evidence.

"This lack of consultation with the community, in my view, is unacceptable."

Muller cited a Waitangi Tribunal ruling that found the Te Patuwai Tribal was "the legitimate vehicle for exercising mana over Motiti".

The select committee meeting via Zoom. Photo / supplied

When the floor opened for questions, National MP for Kaikōura Stuart Smith asked Muller if the legal proceedings were "a group of elite people thinking they want to bypass … the local communities of interest".

Muller said: "That's one way of putting it".

"Those group of individuals do not reflect the mana of the island."

Bay of Plenty-based Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark pushed back on that characterisation and said the term "elite" was not "helpful or useful" in this situation.

"It is available to all people to go to the courts for redress… it's not an elite system, I think it's a system genuinely based."

Warren-Clark referenced her own experience of fishing on the reefs.

"I have myself been fishing those reefs for a number of years, 20-plus years … we have seen the degradation of our fishing environment. This is an opportunity to put some protection in place."

Environment Committee chair Eugenie Sage, Green Party list MP. Photo / supplied

Muller responded that it was not the concept of fishing restrictions that he opposed necessarily, but the process by which they were reached.

He also claimed the data the restrictions were based on was "incomplete".

Rotorua-based Labour list MP Tamati Coffey asked why Te Patuwai Tribal had not sought their own redress.

Muller responded: "Watch this space".

"They are a very proud group of people who have been particularly pained by this process. I have every confidence that they will continue to reflect on how best to redress what they believe is an injustice.

"They are supportive of this petition, they are supportive of me giving voice to my comments today".

Committee chairwoman Eugenie Sage said to Muller she was puzzled that, as a lawmaker,
he was "so critical of a long-established par process to sort out where there are conflicts about how the Act [RMA] should be applied".

He said he did not find it was done in a way that provided "sufficient opportunity" for Bay of Plenty people to give feedback.