Ownership of Fisheries: - Bill Rosenberg This article was published in the Press, 5/5/00, under the title "Fisheries giant could come home". It was published before the Government stopped the sale of Brierley’s stake in Sealord to foreign fishing companies (see cover story, for details of that).The current debate over whether half of New Zealand’s largest fisheries company, Sealord, should remain overseas owned could have been settled once and for all, and for nothing, in 1992. Even under current circumstances, the Government has power to retain 75% in New Zealand hands – despite last minute action by the former National government to weaken its powers. A New Zealand consortium is asking the Government to prevent the half owned by Singapore-based Brierley Investments being sold overseas, and has put full page advertisements in daily newspa-pers calling for this action. Half Of Sealord’s Quota Forfeited In 1992 –
In November 1991, Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), then owner of Sealord, became an overseas company when Brierley Investments sold its 32% shareholding in CHH to a joint venture it owned 50/50 with the US International Paper Company. This put Sealord in breach of the 1983 Fisheries Act which allowed only 25% ownership without an explicit exemption from the Director-General of Fisheries. The then Director-General of Fisheries, Russ Ballard, eventually gave an exemption allowing 40% of Sealord to be overseas owned. The fishing industry rightly complained bitterly. However what was not made public was that the then Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries believed that Sealord had actually forfeited its fishing quota to the Crown as a result of going for some time without this exemption. Sealord and CHH strenuously denied this, but a letter to George O’Brien of CHH from Ballard when conveying the exemption to the company on 2 July 1992, states: "As you will see I have decided to restore to Sealord its quota holdings and permit it to continue to hold quota subject to conditions" . So the Government could have forfeited the quota and handed it to the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission (TWFC) at no cost to the Crown whatsoever. Instead it meekly handed it back to CHH. Fisheries Law Designed To Protect New Zealand Ownership Even given its timidity in 1992, the Government has long had the ability to prevent overseas control of our fisheries resources. The legislation was designed to reserve our valuable Exclusive Economic Zone for local fishing companies and boats. The 1996 Fisheries Act disallows more than 24.9% of a quota-owning company being overseas owned unless exempted by the relevant Ministers. The 1996 Act was originally tighter in that such an exemption could not be given for more than 40% voting power but was never put into force. In last minute legislation, the National government changed the Act to allow any level of overseas shareholding – and then handed the whole business over to the Overseas Investment Commission, which the Government had instructed that all applications meeting the criteria "should be approved unless good reason exists to refuse them". The new legislation took effect on 1 October 1999 and the OIC’s delegated authority on 19 November 1999, just days before the Government was voted out. Brierley’s overseas shareholding required an exemption when it bought into Sealord in 1992. It was given an exemption by the then Director-General of Fisheries, Russ Ballard in December that year. If the 1996 Act had been put into force without amendment, BIL would have been forced to sell at least 10% of its shareholding to reduce it to 40%. Pressure from BIL and the TWFC is likely to have been a principal reason this provision was never activated and the amendment made in 1999. Foreign Control Watchdog, P O Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa. December 1999. Email |
 Return
to Watchdog 94 Index |
 |