Te Ohu Kaimoana wants New Zeraland’s policymakers to put legislative reform enabling an overhaul of the M?ori fisheries governing body near the top of their list after the September general election.
The M?ori fisheries commission has been holding hui across the country since 2015 when its 58 iwi members voted to keep the entity as an advocacy group but take more direct control of Te Ohu Kaimoana’s half billion dollars of aquaculture assets. The body was set up in 2004 under the M?ori Fisheries Act to manage the fishing quota awarded to M?ori in the landmark 1992 fisheries settlement.
Representatives appeared before Parliament’s M?ori affairs select committee in Wellington today to give legislators an update on the review, having delivered a report to Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy last September.
Chairman Jamie Tuuta told politicians the speed at which they can push through the reforms will rely on the next government and where its priorities lie after the general election later this year.
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