1998 AQUACULTURE CONFERENCE

Thank you for inviting me here today to your 1998 Conference. I am always happy to have the opportunity to speak at occasions such as this as it has been my experience that it is at fora such as these that the greatest benefit in terms of industry discussion and issue resolution can be attained.

I recently spoke at the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council ?s annual meeting and found that it was a stimulating event with free-ranging discussion about Government direction and policy. I would be happy to see this level of debate maintained ? if not exceeded ? here today.

My first task this morning is one of congratulations. You are to be congratulated for the theme you have chosen for your conference. ?Focus on the Future? is indeed a worthy topic and one I am happy to spend some time on today.

It is all too easy in today?s information overloaded and pressured society to fall in the trap of focusing on the present ? the here and now ? and not looking ahead and defining a path to take account of future events.

So, to the future we look.

To me the future is a series of challenges and opportunities. Government?s role in this future is to create sound, forward looking economic, social and cultural policy that will allow industries such as yours to flourish through its hard work and innovation.

Government is committed to reducing its impact ? both fiscally and infrastructurally on the way New Zealand does its business. It is the politicians? job to create the environment within which New Zealand can grow and its people realise their expectations. It is not our job to regulate to the extent that entrepreneurial activity is stifled and the cost of Government becomes oppressive.

I need not point out that the recurring internal theme of this Government has been, and will continue to be, a smaller more tightly focused public service with more and more responsibility being devolved to industry groups such as the Aquaculture industry.

This then is the your first ?future challenge? this morning - how will the aquaculture industry enter into an era of greater self management? How will you formulate your policies and practices so that, firstly, you can enter into the debate with one voice and secondly gain an outcome acceptable to your members?

I am sure there are those of you sitting here right now who are thinking that the aquaculture industry is already, for all intents and purposes, operating in a self management style. Yet I know there will be others that fear this future as they see devolution and the move to self management as a Government cop out ? a way of saving a few taxpayers? coins while putting at risk the entire concept of sustainable management of our fisheries.

To the first group I say you are partly correct and to the second I say you are wrong.

Firstly, self-management does not mean turning away from the principles of sustainable fisheries management. On the contrary, under a self managed regime these principles must be openly embraced.

Secondly, self-management means taking account and taking responsibility for the views of all those with a stake in the fishery. Experience tells me the real challenge for the aquaculture industry ? indeed the entire commercial fishing industry will be ? as I have already intimated - to combine views more effectively and speak more with one voice.

Having said all this I fully accept that the Crown must provide the right environment under which self-management can take effect. To do this within the fisheries sector we have instituted a number of policy reforms chief of which is the devolution of certain non-core Ministry functions to an industry or other provider.

Devolution
Let me say here and now that the irony about the devolution process ? and, of course, we can see this process at work within the Ministry of Fisheries right now ? is that for some, it is not progressing quickly enough and yet for others it is progressing too quickly.

My concern has always been that the current fisheries management regime does not allow commercial fishers to be as responsible as they could be for managing their own business, nor does it let industry become as efficient and, therefore as internationally competitive as it could be.

Current commercial arrangements also fail to provide incentives for industry to apply a responsible management approach to the wider aquatic environment, nor do they give New Zealand the best return from the commercial use of its fisheries.

Quite simply devolution in a fisheries context is a means to an end that will allow Government to divest itself of non-core services while maintaining control of the quality of these services? outputs through a strict series of audit trails. It will also allow the commercial fishing sector to operate with more surety and have more direct control over some of the costs associated with the running of their industry.

This is good for Government, good for the commercial fishing sector and, I believe, good for New Zealand.

Devolution is consistent with the Government policy of ?getting out? of areas that are not essential and of direct benefit to the long-term economic, social and infrastructural development of New Zealand. This does not mean to say that the services currently within the Ministry of Fisheries that are being proposed for the devolved model are not important, just that they would sit better outside of Government.

Beyond Devolution and Self Management
Let us look beyond devolution for a moment to the future on a global scale.

There is no doubt that issues relating to the harvesting of non-renewable and biological resources will grow in importance. Just the mere fact that the world must eat, heat and clothe itself makes this a rather obvious statement.

Pressure on the environment will increase and so will the pressure to take action to preserve our environment for future generations. This will happen at an increasing pace as consumers the world over begin to demand ? and I mean really demand ? not only products that are deemed to be environmentally friendly, but are produced by companies and countries that have environmentally friendly policies and practices.

At the root of these policies and practices will be sustainability and the ability to prove that the natural environment we have today will be there for our children and our children?s children and so on and so on.

This is why the Government has embraced the Environment 2010 principles and why the Ministry of Fisheries has developed a strategic direction focusing on the sustainability of our aquatic ecosystems.

New Zealand must not squander its sustainable environmental principles in a world where being a non-polluter is becoming a market advantage.

To this end I believe New Zealand?s aquaculture industry is in a unique position to take advantage of this worldwide trend towards environmentally friendly products and production methods. In fact, in many instances you and your members already are ? the export of live mussels to the United States being an example of this.

The second ?future challenge? this morning is, therefore, how will you maintain and sustain your environmental tactical market advantage?

If we are looking to the future then the Asian ?crisis? must be put in its true perspective and you, as an industry must decide how you intend to let market events such as this impact on your business.

This message is one for the entire fishing industry. The opportunities for the aquaculture industry not only exist from externally driven consumer demand. They also exist because of other trends coming from within the commercial fishing industry itself.

Internationally wild fish stocks are coming under greater and greater pressure. Most countries? fishing ventures are over-capitalised and looking for any alternatives to keep their vessels active ? hence greater activity in the Ross Sea for Patagonian Toothfish ? and in the way that New Zealand manages its wild fish resources so successfully.

Because of the increasing pressure on fish stocks, as well as the collapse of some of some heavily fished species, Governments and business are looking for alternatives.

Aquaculture provides such an alternative.

Trade Liberalisation
The other key area where the Crown can help create the positive economic environment to allow the aquaculture industry to operate more efficiently is in the area of trade liberalisation. This is because greater returns for your industry will only accrue if we can convince our trading partners to liberalise their trading conditions.

We would all agree that trading with heavily protected economies does not yield long term sustainable commercial results.

It is for this reason that we are continuing to put emphasis on our participation at international fora including APEC, FAO and OECD. Only through constant and continued pressure can we hope to focus other countries on the trade distortions that exist through their use of tariffs and other internal support mechanisms.

It is my hope that we can make trading partners understand that to have Governments underwriting their fishing industries leads to overcapitalisation which in turn impacts on the true bottom line - the sustainability of the fishing resource.

I can assure you that New Zealand is recognised as a world leader and the ?model? of how a progressive, distortion free, fisheries management system can be applied across all sector groups.

There are already encouraging signs that, internationally, the wheels are turning on trade protectionism amongst APEC member countries.

At the APEC meeting in Subic Bay in November 1996, APEC Ministers were instructed to identify sectors where early liberalisation could have a positive impact on trade, investment and growth of APEC economies and regions.

Subsequently at Vancouver last November, APEC leaders agreed on a balanced and mutually beneficial package of nine sectors for early, voluntary liberalisation.

Fish products was one of the nine.

At the time, the benefit of a liberalisation of access-barriers to key Asia-Pacific markets for fish products was estimated as being approximately $US 32 million. In reality we know it would be much more than this.

There are obvious beneficial flow on effects that would accrue throughout the economy, stimulating growth, economic activity and employment.

By being active participants at the meetings I mentioned above our hope is to create increasing pressure so that the WTO will address world trade liberalisation of fish products.

Our work at APEC is already bringing that pressure to bear.

In summary then the future for aquaculture is, in my view, an extremely bright one. We have an environmental base that is a world beater, we produce products of a quality second to none and we have an industry and Government infrastructure that is determining how best to interact.

My figures have the aquaculture industry employing over 2,000 people and earning over $150 million in export revenue annually. I would like to end my speech today with a challenge in the form of a question ? what will the industry be satisfied with in five years, ten years time?