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Environment Minister Nick Smith has gone on the attack after a group of eminent Maori condemned plans for a giant marine sanctuary round the Kermadec Islands.
At a press conference at Te Ohu Kaimoana yesterday Sir Tipene O’Regan, one of the two surviving original fisheries negotiators, said there was no justification on conservation grounds to ban fishing from the area.
There is already a reserve out to 12 miles around the islands, and Maori also led the move to create a benthic protection zone a decade ago meaning there can be no trawling or mining of the seabed.
Flanked by Koro Wetere, Dame Tariana Turia, Dame Iritanga Tawhiwhirangi, Sir Mark Solomon, and Sir Toby Curtis, he said it was a confiscation of the development right recognised in the settlement.
In response, Dr Smith said the taumata ignored the need for leadership in marine conservation, overstated the impacts in respect of fishery and Treaty settlement obligations and underestimated the opportunities for economic and scientific gain.
He said the government always retained the right to create protected areas where fishing would be disallowed and has done so in over 20 new marine reserves since the 1992 fisheries settlement.
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