Restructure of Te Ohu Kaimoana throws up management concerns

Recommendations to restructure Te Ohu Kaimoana, giving iwi full control of Aotearoa Fisheries, may be rejected by Maori interests over concerns about vigilance and managing diverse interests in the sector, the Maori Affairs select committee has been told.

The 2015 independent review of the Maori Fisheries Settlement by Wellington barrister Tim Castle recommends that Te Ohu Kaimoana, which oversees Aotearoa Fisheries and its $543 million in fishery assets, be wound down with power returned to iwi groups for management. Under the Maori Fisheries Act in 2004, Te Ohu Kaimoana was set up to manage the fishing quota awarded to Maori in the 1992 fisheries settlement.

Te Ohu Kaimoana owns all of Aotearoa Fisheries' voting shares and 20 percent of its income shares, with the remainder spread across all iwi. The review recommends the trust be wound down and distribute its shares to iwi, which Castle says was the intent of the 2004 legislation and establishment of the trust in the first place.

"Iwi are now mature and capable to take control of their destiny," Castle told the Maori Affairs select committee. "Iwi are ready for direct control."

Te Ohu Kaimoana's chief executive Peter Douglas and chairman Matiu Rei said the recommendations are still being presented to iwi with an appointed Iwi Working Group seeking views on the proposed changes to the structure. A special meeting for iwi to decide will be held on June 4, but Douglas and Rei couldn't predict whether the recommendations would be accepted on.

Douglas said there was concern that the vigilance the body has over the industry may be lost and it was a question of how to maintain a voice across the recreational, commercial and customary fishery interests.

The recommendations would give iwi control over Aotearoa Fisheries which owns Moana Pacific Fisheries, Pacific Marine Farms, Prepared Foods and half of Sealord Group. It also recommends the trustees of both Te Putea Whakatupu Trust, which runs Maori education initiatives, training and research, and Te Wai Maori Trust, which funds research and development in freshwater fishery initiatives, becoming stand-entities with their own administrative support.

(BusinessDesk)