The Green Party is warning that the Government’s complete rewrite of the Fisheries Act will privatise one of our largest public assets and push fish stocks closer to wipe out.

“The Fisheries Amendment Bill signs away insane industry power over our oceans and fisheries at the expense of regular New Zealanders and the environment that sustains us,” says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“New Zealanders pushed back hard last week, and the Minister was forced to abandon the removal of minimum fish size requirements for commercial operators, but the Government needs to gut the whole damn Bill.

“We cannot let Christopher Luxon and the National Party scapegoat New Zealand First for this latest attack on our environment. This Bill doesn’t need to progress. All coalition parties have decided that it will.

“National, ACT and NZ First are choosing to screw over our oceans and recreational fishers to help the industry make a quick, unsustainable buck.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. The Greens stand with regular people over profit and plunder.

“That means going much further than just killing this Bill. It means phasing out bottom trawling, increasing full marine protection from less than 1% of our oceans to 30%, and protecting our fisheries for future generations,” says Swarbrick.

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