What\u2019s that thing people say? You don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got until they\u2019re gone. Strangely I\u2019m starting to feel that way about National\u2019s former minister for primary industries. Bring back the Guy who was starting to put cameras on commercial fishing boats, Nathan Guy. Yes, really.<\/p>\n
In the year running up to the election, Nathan Guy was being dragged down a relatively enlightened pathway towards a long overdue reformation of the out-of-control New Zealand fishing business.<\/p>\n
This followed a ministerial inquiry<\/a> which exposed a pile of steaming malfeasance by the industry and its supposed regulator, MPI. Commercial fishing companies were videoed unlawfully dumping fish and MPI had refused to prosecute them.<\/p>\n The ministry claimed it had legal advice telling them it wasn\u2019t possible, then later admitted<\/a> there was no such advice \u2013 they just made that up to give a reason not to prosecute. MPI was also forced to admit<\/a> that illegal dumping was widespread after Greenpeace released leaked internal reports.<\/p>\n In response to all this Guy had agreed to put the cameras on vessels to try to stop overfishing and illegal dumping of fish.<\/p>\n At first blush the scheme was going to be implemented, administered and monitored by the fishing industry itself \u2013 a classic fox guarding the hen house scenario.<\/p>\n After investigations by Greenpeace<\/a> and campaigning by many groups, National came round to the idea that it should be the government and not the industry checking the footage. By the time the election came the regulations to run the scheme were already in place.<\/p>\n All of that seems like a happy dream compared with where we find ourselves now. We now have a coalition government whose fishing policy increasingly appears to be guided<\/a> by NZ First and in particular Shane Jones.<\/p>\n NZ First\u2019s King Neptune may not have the portfolio but his fishy hand prints appear to be all over it. And his fish fingers are the wrong kind of fish fingers because he gets campaign money from Talley\u2019s, one of the biggest players in the business. He received ten thousand dollars<\/a> from the company towards his election campaign.<\/p>\n Jones strongly rejects any impropriety in his links with Talley\u2019s, but it\u2019s worth remembering this is also the fishing company that MPI found to be unlawfully under-reporting<\/a> the weight of their cartons in the hoki fishery and hence under-reporting their catch. This MPI compliance investigation never saw the light of day until Greenpeace leaked it. Predictably Talley\u2019s were not prosecuted because, as MPI\u2019s head of compliance said<\/a>, \u201cwe know from experience that prosecution will achieve behavioural change for maybe four or five years at best.\u201d So they had a quiet chat instead and buried the report.<\/p>\n This would be an interesting approach to take to P dealers \u2013 by that logic the police shouldn\u2019t prosecute because it only puts offenders off for a few years.<\/p>\n I have been accused by Stuart Nash, minister of fisheries (on paper anyway), of \u201cliving in an alternate reality.<\/a>\u201d In some ways it does feels a bit like that. In what kind of world does a government dominated by Labour serve up a fish dish so amenable to the industry and damaging to fish stocks, the environment and recreational fishers? In what kind of world do they do so after all the evidence of bad behaviour by the industry and MPI?<\/p>\n First, the cameras on boats. The coalition government has completely iced the project. The decision will be delayed till August<\/a>. This isn\u2019t just a matter of letting things slip \u2013 they actually had to unpick existing regulations to make it happen.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve just learnt the fishing industry wrote Nash a letter totally opposing cameras<\/a> in July last year, while hypocritically running TV ads with the memorable line “we have nothing to hide”<\/a>. Nash\u2019s current line<\/a> is that he won\u2019t implement the cameras without the \u201cbuy-in\u201d of the fishing industry. Well, they ain\u2019t buyin\u2019 because they don\u2019t want anyone to know what happens out there.<\/p>\n Second, an independent inquiry into fisheries management has been squashed by NZ First<\/a>.<\/p>\n This was Labour policy at the last election because MPI can\u2019t be trusted to run a review of fisheries management as they are captured by the fishing industry. As now senior cabinet minister David Parker said<\/a> about MPI in 2016: \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that there has been connivance with a number of officials over a long period \u2026 and I think it\u2019s fair to question whether the ministry has been captured by the [fishing] industry.\u201d<\/p>\n But Stuart Nash now tells<\/a> us that there is no need for an independent review because \u201cthere are some incredibly competent and skilled people at Fisheries NZ and they are not captured by the industry\u201d. In Yes Minister<\/em> parlance this is called \u201chouse training\u201d the new minister<\/a>.<\/p>\n Buoyed by their success in eliminating the independent inquiry and cameras on boats, the fishing industry now seems to have the government completely bent over a barrel. Based on the contents of the discussion paper released this week<\/a> and other comments, the fishing industry now appears to be offering a deal.<\/p>\n The fishing companies will agree to halt the illegal dumping of fish \u2013 estimated to be as much as half the amount they catch or more \u2013 but only on the following terms:<\/p>\n 1) The cameras on boats scheme is scrapped. Tick.<\/p>\n 2) There is no independent inquiry into the fisheries system. Tick.<\/p>\n 3) If anyone gets caught dumping, the companies will get a piffling fine, with the starting point equivalent to a speeding infringement \u2013 $250 is the recommendation in the discussion paper.<\/p>\n Oh and 4) The fishing companies get a big increase in fishing quota (maybe as much as 30% more) \u2013 a signing bonus worth tens of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n Could you ever imagine the police saying to the owners of P labs \u201clet\u2019s give you a massive million dollar payout for stopping the selling of meth to minors and we\u2019ll remove any monitoring or enforcement to see if you do actually stop\u201d? That\u2019s an alternate reality if ever I\u2019ve seen one.<\/p>\n Did I mention the \u201ccameras on boats\u201d project disappears, so there will be no way of knowing if the illegal fish dumping really does stop anyway?<\/p>\n T<\/span>hen there\u2019s the court case<\/a> due to kick off in Nelson in a couple of weeks. Shane Jone\u2019s campaign donor Talley\u2019s owns the vessel Amaltal Apollo. It\u2019s been bottom trawling in protected areas on the high seas. Fourteen charges have been laid by MPI. Talley\u2019s don\u2019t deny they did the bottom trawling but claim they did it because an on-board MPI observer said they could<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Jones, it\u2019s just \u201ca technical issue that will be ironed out when common sense prevails.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n This incredibly ill-considered comment from a minister of the Crown risks undermining the case and is in breach of the Cabinet rulebook. He appears in effect to be telling MPI they shouldn\u2019t be prosecuting because it\u2019s just a \u201ctechnical issue\u201d and he\u2019s telling the judge that Talley\u2019s should be let off.<\/p>\n Because it happened in international waters, Talley\u2019s bottom trawling also comes under the jurisdiction of the awkwardly named SPRFMO, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation<\/a>. Talley\u2019s boat is now on the draft international blacklist of fishing boats.<\/p>\n The New Zealand government has been lobbying hard<\/a> to get the Talley\u2019s boat kept off the final blacklist.<\/p>\n We also know that the New Zealand government has been working<\/a> to significantly increase the amount of stony coral that bottom trawlers are allowed to drag up in their nets before they have to stop. Was that Jones\u2019s fishy fingers again or was it just MPI conducting business as usual?<\/p>\n Most worrying is New Zealand\u2019s role in the UN negotiations towards a global Oceans Treaty<\/a>. This is an historic opportunity to provide the global framework needed for setting aside 30% of the world\u2019s oceans as protected areas by 2030.<\/p>\n