No Benefit for Maori from Aquaculture Settlement
25 August 2008NEW ZEALAND - The New Zealand Parliament's Primary Production Select Committee has highlighted problems with the Government's commercial aquaculture settlement with Maori.
Under the settlement, Maori get 20% of all new marine farming space created after 2005, and the equivalent of 20% of aquaculture space created between 1992 - 2004, reports Radio New Zealand.
The committee's report on the estimates of the Ministry of Fisheries says the Government now thinks the cost of the settlement is likely to be between $50 - $120 million dollars.
Committee chair, National MP David Carter, says the Government has so mishandled the aquaculture sector, and Maori are getting no benefit.
He says aquaculture internationally provides more than 40% of the world's fish supply, but in New Zealand it accounts for only 20%.
TheFishSite News Desk
© 2000 - 2012. 5m Publishing, Benchmark House, 8 Smithy Wood Drive, Sheffield, S35 1QN, England.