Deemed Values

Deemed Value Review

2006 - 2008

Background

In February 2003 a recommendation was made to the Minister of Fisheries that a joint working group be established to consider the proposition that quota rights holders should be entitled to a proportion of deemed values paid by commercial fishermen.

A Joint Working Group (JWG) consisting of fishing industry representatives, Ministry of Fisheries (MFish) and Treasury staff was formed in June 2004. This JWG submitted a report to the Minister of Fisheries in May 2005.

The report contained nine recommendations, eight of which were agreed, the ninth recommendation offered two options for the Minister to consider. The Minister advised the Ministry that consultation with other stakeholders was necessary before he considered his final decision.

MFish Process

On August 16th 2006 MFish released a public discussion paper, Deemed Values - The Recommendations of the Crown and Industry Joint Working Group on Deemed Values; A Public Discussion Paper.

Accompanying the discussion document was a letter inviting stakeholder submissions by 13th October. On request, MFish extended that deadline to 20th October to allow non-commercial fishing interests to submit their views.

Non-Commercial Process

A preliminary view was distributed with a copy of the Public Discussion Document on October 8th. Feedback was sought from the recipients of the email and from others they distributed that information to. A draft submission was distributed on October 10th incorporating most of the feedback received over the previous two days.

Feedback continued to be received over the following week after another three drafts were distributed for comment. By October 18th the document was close to being finished and distributed for final comments.

On October 20th the submission was sent to MFish on behalf of many non-commercial fishing representative organisations, representatives and individuals. These groups and individuals are identified in the joint submission dated 20th October 2006.

2007 Review

In June 2007 MFish issued an Initial Position Paper (IPP) setting out their review of the deemed value rates for a number of fishstocks including blue cod, bluenose, gurnard, hapuku, bass, john dory, snapper, shark, swordfish and trevally.

Non-commercial fishers worked together to formulate a joint submission. The document sent to MFish was signed off by the NZ Big Game Fishing Council and option4 teams on behalf of non-commercial fishers.

2008 Review Process

After reviewing the 12 submissions from fishing interests, MFish provided the Minister with a Final Advice Paper (FAP) in June 2007. The FAP outlined the submissions and provided MFish advice on the JWG's recommendations and how the Minster ought to proceed. The Minister made his final decisions in March 2008.

Those decisions were released in August 2008, with no clear indication of why those decisions were not released earlier. Non-commercial fishing interests have since analysed the MFish advice and Minister's decisions.

The following table includes the documents and submissions that form part of the overall process.