Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones has slapped a delay past the election on his controversial Fisheries Amendment Bill, which he now admits needs “more panel beating”.
Jones labelled critics “noisy voices” back in March, but now concedes there was “disharmony across Parliament and the industry” over it.
The Bill strips away the requirement for ministers to balance commercial and recreational fishing interests. Recreational and Maori customary catch would be treated the same as commercial quotas, with decisions handed to MPI officials instead of ministers. It also prevents on-board camera footage from commercial operations being shared via OIA requests.
Recreational fishers would have lost their catch allocation, a move which Seafood NZ called “bringing fisheries management into the modern era”. Forest & Bird labelled it “a disaster for marine ecosystems”. Submissions on the Fisheries Amendment Bill close 2 July. Have your say at Parliament.nz, or read more at RNZ and NZ Herald.
This story has been republished with permission from RCR Bites. For news like this direct and free to your Inbox every day, go to biteme.news to sign up for RCR Bites.
