Progress of FCV “slave ships” Bill is good news – but much work remains to be done.

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and says the pro­gress of the “slave ships” Bill in the New Zea­l­and Par­lia­ment is good news – but much work remains to be done.

The Fish­er­ies (For­eign Charter Ves­sels and Oth­er Mat­ters) Amend­ment Bill com­pleted its second read­ing on a voice vote in the New Zea­l­and Par­lia­ment on Tues­day 15 April 2014 with sup­port from all sides of the house.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says it was good that For­eign Charter Ves­sels (FCVs) oper­at­ing with­in New Zealand’s Exclus­ive Eco­nom­ic Zone (EEZ) would have to be reflagged under new laws but the times­cale was still too long.

He says the remov­al of pro­posed exemp­tions from the Bill was the right decision, but the focus now had to go on jobs for New Zea­l­and work­ers in the industry.

A shock­ing num­ber of deaths, injur­ies, abuse and exploit­a­tion of for­eign crews have occurred on FCV’s in New Zea­l­and waters.

Mr Fleet­wood says the prob­lem was picked up by glob­al media, then star­ted caus­ing con­cern amongst over­seas con­sumers and com­pan­ies, and even fea­tured in US State Depart­ment reports on mod­ern day slavery.

“It was only when the truth star­ted com­ing out and began dam­aging the so-called clean, green image of New Zea­l­and in our export mar­kets, that the wheels began to turn.”

“This is a sad reflec­tion of a profit-driv­en coun­try where basic human rights and work­er pro­tec­tions can no longer be taken for gran­ted.”

Mr Fleet­wood says that an import­ant issue that had not yet been addressed was a career path to secure jobs for New Zea­l­and work­ers in their own nation­al industry.

He says there is a press­ing need to cre­ate employ­ment in high qual­ity value added pro­cessing, on the water and on land, giv­en the ser­i­ous unem­ploy­ment levels amongst young New Zea­l­and work­ers, espe­cially young Maori work­ers who were miss­ing out on bene­fit­ing from iwi profits from involve­ment in the industry.

He says New Zea­l­and could learn from over­seas examples such as Ice­land.

The Mari­time Uni­on would con­tin­ue to offer sup­port for­eign crews includ­ing fish­ing work­ers who are being exploited and vic­tim­ised, says Mr Fleet­wood.