Slavery on our seas
March 2nd, 2012 at 2:00 pm by David FarrarIn my Herald column I comment on the report of the Ministerial Inquiry into the use of and operation of foreign charter vessels. My conclusion:
The Government has already agreed to some of the recommendations, but is considering others in more detail. I believe it is important to keep the pressure on the Government to do everything they can to stop these abuses.
The problem is that its ability to act is limited, while the FCVs are flagged under the flags of other countries. This means that, for example, any rapes on board the ships are a matter for the flag state, not New Zealand, unless they are in New Zealand territorial waters (up to 12 miles out) rather than the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone (up to 200 miles out). This means that even these changes may prove ineffective, and the eventual solution may have to be require all vessels fishing in our EEZ to be New Zealand flagged ships. This would have adverse economic consequences, but we can’t allow these abuses to continue in our waters, by ships fishing New Zealand quota.
The problem is not the entire industry or all FCVs, but a subset of them. Those with records of repeated abuses should be ineligible to be contracted.
Related posts:
- A principled decision
- More slavery on our seas
- Foreign Crewed Fishing Vessels
- Key promises fishing action
March 2nd, 2012 at 2:41 pm
How are they going to ensure New Zealand wages are paid. It’s a hard devious world and our NZ bureaucracy has come nowhere near to making that happen.
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 2:42 pm
If you are serious in calling these “slave ships”, then our police can do something about it. Even if all the slavery occurs outside our waters, once they get here we could arrest and charge them for it. New Zealand rape laws may not have full extraterritorial reach, but our slavery laws do.
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Slavery it is not. such emotional language is silly.
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Slavery it is! I suggest that no company with any record of heavily indentured crew is allowed to fish in our economic zone, and we enforce it
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 3:13 pm
We do know that a lot of the quota is not owned by Iwi but a lot is. And that was there to provide jobs and skills for Maori workers etc. Given they haven’t done that . Maori are being disadvantaged by Iwi in this case Iwi should lose the quota.- is it not a ‘breach’ of the agreement, treaty principles etc, by Iwi
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Maori quota obtained from the Settlement on commercial fisheries between Maori and Crown accounts for less than 10 per cent of all deepwater quota caught by FCVs. If all of the Maori quota was used by FCVs, it could never be greater than 17% of the deepwater fish caught by FCVs. The vast majority of quota caught by FCVs is from privately owned quota owners and fishing companies. The economics of the fishing industry are such that when the Maori Fisheries Settlement was spread over the 57 iwi as decided through the agreed Method of Allocation in 2004, none received enough quota to take the risk of owning fishing vessels.
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 6:50 pm
How practical is it to position a MAF inspector 24/7/365 on every single contracted fishing vessel in NZ’s EEZ?
And if you were a MAF inspector why the hell would you want to go onto a rundown rusty smelly hulk with an entire crew who didn’t speak a word of English?
And what’s to stop said masters/mates or whoever it is who actually does the raping and abusing, from simply throwing said inspector over the side, one windy dark night? Or are we also planning on hiring several burly security staff for each inspector to make sure that doesn’t happen to someone who would otherwise be alone, hundreds of miles out at sea, with said evil rapists and abusers?
Correct me if that’s not the practical reality of the policy the Minister in his comfortable Beehive Suite hasn’t signed off on. Perhaps the Minister should show us all the way by being the first one to go on inspection voyages with no support staff on the very worst of the worst vessels, just to show us all how safe and comfortable it really actually will be for those who follow his brave example. After all, he’s the leader, isn’t he? So go ahead. Lead. We’re waiting.
Vote:March 2nd, 2012 at 6:54 pm
MAF already have inspectors on fishing vessels.
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