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A former Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commisioner says the Maori fisheries sector pays too much tax.
Rob McLeod, who now chairs professional services firm Ernst and Young Oceania, told the annual Maori Fisheries Industry conference in Auckland that over the past decade iwi fishing businesses have paid $145 million in industry levies and cost recovery charges to the Ministry for Primary Industries.
He says that is a disproportionately high proportion of what Maori fisheries assets are capable of earning, and it's a situation that doesn't apply to other industries.
"In a sense it's a cost recovery mindset. The Government has actually got to identify what costs the industry causes it to incur, or what arise in the system as a result of those activities and possibly recoup those from the sector or effectively address the argument as to why the consilidated fund doesn't handle it, as it does for other sectors," he says.
Mr McLeod says iwi and Maori fisheries interests need to start working together more and join with the wider fisheries sector to get changes in the way fisheries are managed.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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