Aquaculture reforms on track to deliver progress and certainty to industry

Reform of the aquaculture industry and better decisions about marine space came a step closer today when the Aquaculture Reform Bill passed it's first reading in Parliament.

Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope told Parliament the Aquaculture Reform Bill is about securing a sustainable future for New Zealand's aquaculture industry.

"The Bill enables councils to better deal with all the effects on the environment and to assist the aquaculture industry to develop in a sustainable way," he said.

The Bill also provides a full and final settlement of Maori interests in commercial marine farming space by providing iwi, where possible, 20 percent of marine farming space allocated since 1992 and 20 percent of any future new space.

"This is an important step," Mr Benson-Pope said. "Settling contemporary commercial claims removes a major impediment to progress and certainty.

"This is in line with the 1992 Fisheries Settlement – aquaculture being the unfinished business of the 1992 Settlement."

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>