Fisheries Cost Recovery – Tough But Fair

Robin Hapi, Chief Executive Officer of Te Ohu Kai Moana today welcomed the changes to fisheries cost recovery rules approved by cabinet yesterday.

“The New Zealand cost recovery regime for fisheries management services is still the toughest in the world but this is a big step forward for fairness” he said. The existing regime required fishers to fund some things which were unrelated to commercial fishing and which gave no benefit to commercial fishers.

“These anomalies have placed a strain on the relationship between fishers and the Ministry of Fisheries over the last few years. I hope these decisions mark a turning point in that relationship” he said.

Mr Hapi confirmed that the Treaty of Waitaingi Fisheries Commission was directly involved in the joint working group and the Commission is confident that the joint process used to analyse this complex issue could be employed to address other tough fisheries issues.

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