Commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf. Photo: Simon Mark-Brown
The government wants to put in place new marine protection areas in the Hauraki Gulf, while still allowing some fishing to continue there.
Cabinet has agreed Parliament should pass the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill with amendments.
It will create 19 new marine protection areas, which Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said will nearly triple the space protected in the gulf.
Potaka said a commitment to restoring the health and mauri of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana will enhance the area for generations to come.
"I acknowledge the many years of mahi that have got us to this point. Committing to progressing this Bill means we are targeting our efforts into high-value conservation areas delivering the best outcomes for biodiversity," Potaka said.
"The Gulf is home to an array of habitats, including biologically important dog cockle beds, kelp forests and fragile coral. One-third of all seabirds that breed in Aotearoa New Zealand nest in the Gulf."
However, the Hauraki Gulf Forum said the changes to the Bill announced on Sunday "threaten to set back our protection and restoration efforts by decades".
Potaka said the Bill supported the delivery of the government's goal to rebuild the economy and tackle environmental issues.
A recent assessment by the NZ Institute of Economic Research put the economic value of the Gulf at $100 billion.
"Our amendments also ensure we are putting in place modern marine protection that balances the needs of communities, the environment and the economy. For example, by carefully ensuring the continuation of customary non-commercial fishing rights."
Limited ring-net fishing will continue for a small number of fishers in protected areas who supply local communities, Potaka added.
He said it had very little impact on the environment beyond the target species.
"Careful monitoring of the effectiveness of the new high protection areas and seafloor protection areas will also be introduced. This is being funded through the International Visitor Levy and reprioritisation within Vote Conservation.
"By pruning regulation, growing revenue and nurturing the things that matter most, we are securing a future for biodiversity that all New Zealanders can be proud of."
But Hauraki Gulf Forum, the statutory body responsible for promoting the conservation and management of the Hauraki Gulf, is concerned.
'A kick in the face' - Hauraki mayor
Co-chairs of the Forum, Nicola MacDonald and Hauraki mayor Toby Adams, said opening up high protection areas to commercial fishing undermined years of collaboration by successive governments with Iwi, communities and industry to ensure that the Gulf was protected and restored.
"In the forum's submission on the Bill, we were explicit that commercial activity must not be allowed in high protection areas. To do so undermines the integrity of the Bill and the principles of marine protection, restoration and conservation," MacDonald said.
Adams added there was already a robust permitting regime in the Bill to allow activities such as fishing to take place within a protected area.
"There is no reason to bake into the legislation an exception for commercial fishing, other than an acknowledgement that this would never meet the threshold for receiving a permit - in and of itself an example of why this change should be thrown out.
"This Bill has been consistently stalled over the past 14 months, and the last minute changes being proposed today, almost four months after the select committee process ended, threaten to set back our protection and restoration efforts by decades."
It was "sort of like a kick in the face" from what he had been hearing from central government since they got into power, Adams said, that the community should decide what's best for them.
"We need to go back to how the bill stood, the bill went through a robust process," he said.
"Whenever a bill goes through you're having robust conversations, robust hearings, listening to different scientific experts, you're listening to the community, and there was an overwhelming support for the protected areas we had, and now they've just changed that."