On Wednesday, the Ministry of Primary Industries led a raid on sites in Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Tauranga, Gisborne, Chatham Islands and Christchurch. The police Asset Recovery Unit "froze" eight properties and five vehicles through the High Court. Hawke's Bay Seafoods leases the fishing quota of a local tribe, Ngati Kahungunu.
The allegations are the latest in a long line of irregularities to do with tribal-owned fishing that includes the use of foreign charter vessels to fish quota, the underpayment of crew, pillaging the fisheries, and the sinking of the Korean Oyang 70 in 2010 off Otago with the deaths of six crew members.
The Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Act, which passed into law in August of this year, regulates foreign charter vessels following allegations of mistreatment and underpayment of foreign crews.
Ngati Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana argued that tribes should be exempted from the new requirements for foreign charter vessels, saying the move would diminish iwi fisheries settlement by between 20 and 30 percent, damage Maori economies, and constitute a modern breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Hawke's Bay Seafoods, which the Hawke's Bay Today newspaper described as a quota owner, vessel operator, processor, wholesaler, exporter and retailer, has hired high-profile public and employment law specialists Chen Palmer.
Source
Allegations dismay fish firm boss, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11332653
4 comments:
I believe we are yet witnessing what will be just the surface ramifications of separatist agendas this Government has endorsed & advanced. Why Maori are allocated a fishing quota based on alleged historic fishing practices is wrong from the outset. The treaty observes everyone has the same rights not one group having more rights than others.
Why on gods earth dont the tribe do the work themselves. That was one of the arguments for handing out the quota's in the first place, to provide employment for them.
In fairness, I guess they are only doing what we would do.
Once again we are seeing things done here "Maori Styles". Or to translate that into English - bugger the consequences, let's get away with as much as possible while the PC idiots will let us
Having attended a number of this years Constitutional Meetings all of them stated, "We only have one Treaty, Maori", which holds no exclusive fishing rights.
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