MEDIA RELEASE
2 February 2007

70 Percent of Iwi Receive Fisheries Assets

Seventy percent of iwi have become mandated organisations and received more than $385 million worth of fisheries assets in the last two years.

Te Ohu Kaimoana Chairman Shane Jones said that at the beginning of February 2007, 40 iwi had become mandated iwi organisations under the Maori Fisheries Act 2004, representing 70 percent of all iwi.

“We are on the downward stretch towards full allocation. Only 17 iwi remain to get through the Act’s requirements. We have managed to put through 40 iwi in a little over two years and expect the entire settlement to be allocated in 2008,” Mr Jones told delegates at the Hui a Tau in Wellington today.

The latest iwi to be approved at the beginning of February 2007 were Ngati Tuwharetoa and two iwi from Te Tau Ihu – Te Atiawa and Rangitane.

Mr Jones called on the representatives from the remaining 17 iwi to make the effort to put their tribe through the mandating process. “A few iwi cannot hold up the future of neighbouring iwi forever. You cannot continually avoid the MIO process. This process will be completed and allocation will come to a close.”

“We have said it before and I repeat it: Te Ohu Kaimoana will not continually provide annual catch entitlements to iwi that are making little effort at meeting their obligations under the Act. There will come a time when the benefits received from ACE will no longer be available to non-MIOs,” Mr Jones said.

Annual Catch Entitlements (ACE) are fisheries benefits provided by Te Ohu Kaimoana each year to iwi since the 1990s as a means of providing iwi benefits of the settlement until allocation could be completed.

Mr Jones said the Maori fisheries assets were growing in value, and overall Maori investment in New Zealand commercial fishing is well over a third of the entire industry. “We are running the country’s biggest fishing company, Sealord, and we have a lot to be proud of. We have come a long way since the mid-1980s when Maori had no significant presence in the commercial fishing industry.”

Te Ohu Kaimoana reported an after-tax profit of $19.9 million for the year ending 30 September 2006. The full year result includes the after-tax profit of $16.5 million from Aotearoa Fisheries Limited, wholly owned by Te Ohu Kaimoana.

While Te Ohu Kaimoana is putting valuable fishing assets in iwi hands, the organisation works continuously safeguarding the settlement and its value to Maori through providing fisheries management advisory services to iwi, lobbying government to protect access to the marine environment and promoting development opportunities.

ENDS

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