Hon Damien O’Connor
Rural Affairs spokesperson
Biosecurity spokesperson
Associate Agriculture spokesperson

18 June 2009 Media release

Fisheries Minister won’t support jobs for Kiwis

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley conceded today that increased employment for New Zealanders in the fishing industry was not a Government objective, says Labour’s Rural Affairs spokesperson Damien O’Connor.

“The deeply disappointing admission was made at Parliament’s primary production select committee, when Mr Heatley was being questioned about the objectives in the 2030 Fisheries Plan.

“This means the long-standing government objective around the ‘New Zealandisation’ of our fishing industry has now been completely abandoned by National,” says Damien O’Connor.

“This objective centred on increasing the levels of New Zealand ownership of vessels fishing in our waters and the number of New Zealanders employed in the industry.

“Mr Heatley blatantly admitted that neither of these goals was part of the Government’s programme. This is a shocking statement from a minister who is part of a Government which claims to be focused on trying to curb growing unemployment.

“It means increasing numbers of foreigners who pay no tax will end up catching and processing our fish - and the cold hard fact is that the Government doesn’t care,” Mr O’Connor said.

“The Government’s key objective, Mr Heatley admitted, was to increase the industry’s value to New Zealand by increasing benefits to quota owners.

“It ignores the potential to add value to New Zealand through increasing jobs in value-added processing and in catching the fish in New Zealand-owned and operated vessels.

“This helps explain why the Government made no attempt to recently intervene and try to persuade Sealord not to save jobs at its Nelson plant.

“It seems the recently announced hoki quota increase will be caught by foreign vessels and processed offshore,” Mr O’Connor said.

ENDS

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