New legislation aimed at fixing problems in the stalled aquaculture industry is unclear and could lead to multi-million dollar legal battles, the Seafood Industry Council says.
The Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill - aimed at clearing roadblocks resulting from 2005 law changes - passed its first reading this month and Parliament's primary production committee started hearing public submissions today.
But Seafood Industry Council policy manager Nici Gibbs today told MPs the bill was highly technical and contained little in the way of explanatory information.
As it was written, several tenets were unclear and could lead to protracted legal battles - particularly around how the effects of potential aquaculture developments on other fishing was assessed.
The council represented both fishers and aquaculture farmers.
"We wonder how people will be able to implement this legislation in the future when the intent of the changes is not very clear and the drafting is so complicated," Ms Gibbs said.
"We're saying we don't want this legal ambiguity ... to result in the fishing and aquaculture parts of the industry spending millions of dollars battling out every single decision in court."
Ms Gibbs said the group supported the aim of the bill, but consultation with industry had so far been inadequate and it was important to take the time to get the bill right.
Tony Stallard, counsel for Nelson fishing company Challenger Group, said if the process around how the impact of new aquaculture developments were assessed was not made more clear then legal action was inevitable.
Two judicial review proceedings were ready to be filed if the committee did not sort out the problem, he said.
"Every individual application that has to be gone through will be challenged by the groups that I represent until this matter is properly recognised."
Committee chairman David Carter questioned the submitters on whether they were willing for the bill to be delayed after the election in order for the committee to make significant changes.
Ms Gibbs said it was a balancing act. Problems needed to be urgently fixed, but it was important things did not go so fast that the bill created a new set of unintended consequences.
The industry has complained about the shambolic state of affairs since the Government first intervened in 2001 over fears a "goldrush" in marine farms would ruin the aquatic environment.
A moratorium on applications between 2001 and 2004 was lifted in 2005 with the intention that applications could only be made into designated management areas.
Since then no new aquaculture areas have been set up and also the courts threw a spanner in the works when ruling aquaculture activities could be allowed outside designated management areas.
