Māori Fisheries Amendment Act 2024

Overview

In July, the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill passed its third reading and received royal ascent as the Māori Fisheries Amendment Act 2024.

The amendments represent the most significant changes to the Māori fisheries settlement infrastructure in 20 years, and began as a part of the statutory review process that began in late 2014 and early 2015.

The Māori Fisheries Act 2004 established Te Ohu Kaimoana, Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust (operating as Tapuwae Roa), Te Wai Māori Trust, and Aotearoa Fisheries Limited (trading as Moana NZ), and outlines the functions of those organisations, and the allocation of fisheries settlement assets to iwi.

Now that the Act is confirmed, we have entered into the implementation phase. This page will provide iwi organisations and asset holding companies the resources and supplementary information required as it comes to hand.

Current status of work programme

New appointments processes for the boards of Aotearoa Fisheries Limited (AFL) and TOKMTL

We are currently engaging with MIO, Asset Holding Companies (AHC) and Representative Māori Organisations (RMO) on two draft appointment process models.  A link to these draft models and the supporting process can be found here.

The two appointments process options are based off our recent survey results and iwi engagement to date. In particular:

• Joint Nominations Committee: (comprising of TOKMTL/AFL board chair and MIO/RIO/RMO/AHC representatives e.g. Te Kāwai Taumata), which assesses all candidates and develops a us of best candidates. MIO/RIO/RMO/AHC can only consider the shortlisted candidates for appointment to the board.
• External Nominations Committee: (comprising of MIO/RIO/RMO/AHC representatives e.g. Te Kāwai Taumata), which assesses all candidates and ranks them in order of how well they meet the skills criteria for the director vacancy. All candidates are included on the ballot, ranked in order of their assessment results. MIO/RIO/RMO/AHC may appoint any of the candidates to the board.

These options will also be included in the suite of MFAA exposure draft documents which will be circulated for iwi feedback in October. Board approval of the final option for each entity will be sought in February 2026.

If you would like to meet with us to discuss the appointment process design work, please contact MFAA Programme Director, Tania Heyrick via email at: tania.heyrick@teohukaimoana.nz

MIO constitutional amendments

We encourage MIO to continue to progress amendments that will need to be made to governance documents to align with the MFAA changes. In December of last year, we provided all MIO with the Māori Fisheries Act 2024 Iwi Information Pack (a copy of this can be found here).

This pack provides a detailed overview of the key changes and a suggested timeline for MIO to work towards. All changes will need to be in place by 26 July 2026, and our legal team are actively working with MIO to support these changes. If you have any pātai or would like to discuss these changes further please contact our General Counsel Brianna Boxall via email at: brianna.boxall@teohukaimoana.nz

Next steps

July - September 2025

• Te Ohu Kaimoana (TOKMTL) engagement with iwi on draft appointment models for Aotearoa Fisheries Limited (AFL) and TOKMTL
• TOKMTL legal team working with Mandated Iwi Organisations (MIO) on their constitutional updates

October - November 2025

• Suite of MFAA exposure draft documents distributed for iwi feedback

February 2026

• Final MFAA changes / documents approved by TOKMTL

March 2026

• Final changes presented to iwi at AGM
• All MIO to aim for approval of constitutions via MIO AGM (by March 2026)

26 July 2026

• Commencement date. All changes go live.

Handover period post July 2026

While the MFAA legislation requires the governance and operational processes to be in place by 26 July 2026, there will need to be a transitional period to allow time for the new relationships, responsibilities, and constitutional and operational policies and procedures across our Te Ohu Kaimoana kāhui and MIO/RIO/RMO/AHC to bed in.

More information on this will be provided in the coming weeks.

If you have any pātai on the MFAA implementation, please contact MFAA Programme Director, Tania Heyrick, at: tania.heyrick@teohukaimoana.nz‍