Environment Minister Nick Smith and Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley have declared that rules governing aquaculture will be overhauled alongside the Government’s wider review of the Resource Management Act (RMA). The aquaculture industry has a goal of becoming a $1 billion-a-year industry by the year 2025 and the Government is committed to helping it achieve this target.
Heatley told that a vibrant aquaculture industry producing high quality, healthy, sustainable seafood has huge potential for creating thriving businesses in regional areas and boosting economic growth for the whole country. He added that the aquaculture industry is being held back by a regulatory regime that is just not working.
Dr Smith informed that the aquaculture regime was now imbedded in the RMA, which clearly wasn’t working for New Zealand. He also said that the excessive time, cost and complexity of getting new aquaculture projects through the current RMA process is holding back aquaculture businesses and depriving the economy of much needed sustainable growth.
The government said that the main aim of the Aquaculture Amendment Bill (No 2) 2008 is to remove a number of technical barriers to aquaculture and will continue through the parliamentary process before being passed in early 2009. It is also said that the Government will introduce into Parliament the first phase of its intended RMA reforms in 2009, which will streamline the RMA approval and consideration processes and make it less difficult, time consuming and costly for projects to be considered and approved.
