Mike Butler: Quota woes for HB tribe

Hawke's Bay Seafoods has hired a high profile legal firm to explain in court alleged discrepancies between the amount of fish the company said it caught and the amount exported.

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.

Mike Butler: ‘Fishing’ tribes say bill breaches treaty

Tribal business leaders claim the government’s rejection of a recommendation to exempt iwi from re-flagging foreign charter vessels is a modern breach of the Treaty of Waitangi that would diminish the fisheries settlement by between 20 and 30 percent.

About 60 tribal business leaders were to discuss the bill at the Iwi Leaders Forum meeting in Te Kuiti on Friday. The bill had its second reading in Parliament on April 15.