Maori fisheries legislation unveiled

3.00pm

The Government today unveiled proposed legislation allocating about $700 million of Maori fisheries assets.

The Maori Fisheries Bill contains the legal foundations for allocating settlement assets as proposed by the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission earlier this year.

It provides for about half the settlement assets to be allocated directly to iwi and for the remaining assets, mostly company shares, to be centrally managed on behalf of iwi.

It also provides for the establishment of a series of new entities required by the model, including two specialist trusts, to promote education and training for Maori and to advance Maori freshwater fishing interests.

Other features include:

* basing the formula for inshore quota on an iwi's coastline;

* basing the formula for deepwater quota on a 25/75 split between an iwi's coastline and population, except for the Chatham Islands, where it will be 50/50;

* generally dividing cash on an iwi's population; and

* giving Ngai Tahu, Ngati Kahungunu, Nga Puhi, Ngati Porou, Chatham Islands iwi and Waikato iwi the biggest parcel of assets.

Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson, announcing the bill, said it followed more than 10 years of discussion and debate among Maori.

"Its passage will begin a new era of Maori participation in the fishing industry, enabling the beneficiaries of the 1992 Fisheries Settlement to receive the assets and use them for the economic and social benefit of all Maori," he said.

"Perhaps inevitably, the allocation model does not command universal support among Maori. It is nevertheless a remarkable achievement, given the history of this issue."

National MP Wayne Mapp said the bill raised serious questions about the Government's constitutional processes.

"This week and last there have been three major cases heard in court on the issues at the very heart of the legislation," Dr Mapp said.

"A better constitutional process would have been to wait until the High Court has handed down all the decisions on the allocation model."

Mr Hodgson will ask Parliament to refer the bill to a special select committee, the membership of which would be determined by all parliamentary parties.

- NZPA