He Kāwai Amokura

He Kāwai Amokura is a report that bears a significant name for te iwi Māori. It is connotative of our long and eventful journey to secure our rangatiratanga and recover our rights to participate in one of New Zealand’s most influential and vigorous industries. The course has been circuitous. However, it is apparent that a safe landing place is at hand for the Amokura. This allocation model is directed towards ensuring that the fruits of the Settlement are ultimately for the benefit of all Māori. The model that we have developed balances a broad range of competing interests and is designed to assist Maori, today and for future generations, to prosper in the business and activity of fishing.

He Kawai Amokura and its components are described in full detail in the body of this Report and the proposed Māori Fisheries Development Bill is attached as Appendix 1.

In broad terms, He Kāwai Amokura will directly allocate about half of the total settlement assets to Iwi (quota and cash). The other half of the assets (shares in the fishing companies) will be centrally managed on behalf of iwi under a new organisation, Te Ohu Kai Moana. Continued economic benefits to Iwi are ensured through, among other things, the ongoing annual allocation to iwi of dividends on the basis of their income share holdings in Aotearoa Fisheries Limited (AFL), which is to hold and manage the POSA companies on behalf of Te Ohu Kai Moana.

The allocation of the quota, cash and income shares will empower iwi to develop their own assets as they see fit. To support iwi development, transitional funding will be used to assist iwi to develop the corporate governance structures required to prudently hold the assets that are to be allocated. The holding of the Voting Shares in AFL by Te Ohu Kai Moana on behalf of all Iwi enables Māori to stand together to develop their commercial interests and also provides AFL and the other companies with a unified and stable shareholder. Through the income shares in AFL and the company’s dividend policy, iwi should gain a larger and more certain revenue stream into the future.