29 Sept 2021
By consent the Court granted interim orders restraining the respondents from taking any further action consequential on setting or varying the TAC and TACC for SNA8 pending resolution of the judicial review, and issued agreed timetabling and service directions for the substantive proceeding.
20 Sept 2021
The court amended the previously granted stay to run until 1 October 2022 because any new TAC/TACC for East Coast tarakihi could only be implemented at the start of the next fishing year (1 October 2022), and including East Coast tarakihi in the established October 2022 sustainability round better accommodated consultation and tangata whenua participation and offered no less access to the updated stock assessment than an expedited standalone process.
16 Jun 2021
The Court held the Minister erred in law by failing to identify and assess the period appropriate to the East Coast tarakihi stock under s 13(2)(b)(ii) before applying social, cultural and economic factors to determine way and rate; the Minister also failed to have regard to the HSS guidance on acceptable rebuild probability (70%) and took into account an irrelevant consideration (the Industry Rebuild Plan) in determining the period appropriate to the stock; however adopting measures modelled at approximately a 50% probability was not, in itself, held to be unlawful.
22 Feb 2008
The Minister erred in law by setting TAC under s13(2)(b) without any assessment or estimate of current biomass or BMSY and without taking into account feasible best available information (a topographical survey); accordingly the TAC decision was quashed.
19 Nov 2007
The Court held the appellants had an arguable and sufficiently cogent challenge to the statutory basis of the Minister's decision under s13 and s10; balancing the consequences, the appellants would suffer significant and potentially irretrievable financial detriment absent relief while there was no evidence of immediate threat to the stock, therefore the balance of convenience favoured interim relief preserving the prior TAC (1,470 tonnes) and TACC (1,400 tonnes) until further order.
21 Mar 2007
Court held TAC levels set by the Minister were within discretion and not unlawful, but the Minister acted unlawfully in fixing TACCs without properly taking into account the mandatory utilisation requirement to allow for recreational social, economic and cultural wellbeing (s8/s21), failed to have proper regard to ss7 and 8 of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act when setting the TAC for KAH 1, and acted irrationally by rejecting MFish advice to consider recreational bag limit controls without reasons; remedy is declaratory relief and a direction to reconsider the 2005 decision accordingly.