Receiving Settlement Assets

Who gets settlement assets?

If your iwi has a coastline in its rohe and is listed under the Māori Fisheries Act 2004, it will be eligible to receive assets under the aquaculture settlement.

Settlement assets will be allocated to Iwi Aquaculture Organisations. These will be the same mandated iwi organisations established under the Māori Fisheries Act 2004 to receive fisheries assets under the 1992 Fisheries Settlement, but they must also have been authorised by their iwi members (through provisions in their constitutions) to receive aquaculture assets under the aquaculture settlement.

Settlement assets will be allocated on a region-by-region basis, based around the jurisdictions of regional councils and unitary authorities. The exception is those harbours identified by the Second Schedule of the Māori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004 - where settlement assets will be allocated to iwi whose rohe abut that harbour.

These harbours are:

North Island

South Island

[Admiralty Bay, Port Gore, and Port Underwood will also be added to this list]

The eastern and western coastlines of the Waikato and Wanganui/Manawatu regions will be treated as separate regions for the purposes of these allocations.

What if there is no marine farming in my region?

Settlement allocations will be made whenever your region's council creates Aquaculture Management Areas.

So although there may be no marine farms in your area now, if allowance is made for them some time in the future, through the creation of AMAs, you will be eligible to receive a share of the new space created.

How do iwi get settlement assets?

As happened with the fisheries settlement of 1992, regional aquaculture water- space and financial settlements will be initially passed to a Trustee³, who will then allocate these to the region's iwi in accordance with the aquaculture settlement Act.

The Trustee can only distribute the aquaculture settlement assets to an Iwi Aquaculture Organisation.

Once all a region's iwi have established their necessary organisation/s, they have 12-months to reach written agreement over how their region's aquaculture settlement assets will be proportionately divided.

If they can't agree within this timeframe, the Trustee will determine what proportion of the settlement each iwi will receive, based on iwi claims to coastline length (or harbour agreements).

Once decisions on proportionate share have been made, Iwi Aquaculture Organisations then have to agree on how the settlement assets themselves will be allocated.

The Trustee will then transfer the assets to the iwi organisation's involved.

What is the role of Iwi Aquaculture Organisations?

Iwi Aquaculture Organisations are responsible for aquaculture settlement assets allocated to that iwi. They must act for the benefit of all members of the iwi, and are responsible for establishing commercial entities to manage these settlement assets.

What say iwi disagree with decisions made?

The Act provides dispute resolution processes to resolve specified disputes (including iwi disputes over coastline entitlements and division of assets).

Can interim arrangements be made?

Iwi Aquaculture Organisations may ask the Trustee³ to make an interim division of assets, before all the region's iwi coastline entitlements have been decided. Any interim division of assets would require the agreement of all Iwi Aquaculture Organisations in the region.