January 12 2016

Fishhooks in government’s park plan

National has backed away from its promise of recreational fishing parks, with their proposal failing to ban commercial fishing operations in the area, says Labour Fisheries Spokesperson Rino Tirikatene.

“At the last election, National promised to create recreational fishing parks by banning commercial fishing in key areas.

“However, today’s announcement reveals ‘some parks might allow commercial fishing to continue for certain species’. So despite all National’s spin, commercial fishing will continue in the so called ‘recreation’ parks.

“The proposal has also left open a potential blank cheque to compensate quota owners in affected areas while fishers who rely on that quota could potentially lose their livelihood and get nothing in return. The proposed approach could also leave the Government open to legal action costing the taxpayer even more. It is also possible that Treaty Settlements may be undermined through the creation of the parks.

“There will also be alarm that ‘petroleum or minerals activity could be allowed’ within these so called recreational fishing parks and additional onerous reporting obligations could be imposed on recreational fishers.

“Burying the announcement in a vague discussion document at the height of summer is an admission by the government that the promised fishing parks are in rough water. It looks like another Nick Smith stuff-up is imminent as the Minister has again been caught out not doing his homework.

“While the idea may have sounded good in National's focus groups at election time, by not doing the work behind the scenes, the Government has been caught out over-promising and under-delivering yet again,” says Rino Tirikatene.

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