The Green Party has condemned the Government's late change to allow commercial fishing in protected areas in the Hauraki Gulf.
"This Government has bent over backwards to give fishing lobbyists exactly what they asked for, in an area of precious biodiversity facing ecological collapse," says the Green Party Spokesperson for the Environment, Lan Pham.
"Healthy marine environments are the lifeblood of our planet. We can have healthy and thriving fisheries and marine life - now and in the future - if we give fish stocks a chance to recover.
"The Auckland and wider Hauraki Gulf community alongside iwi and hapū have worked hard for many years to develop a framework for protecting the health of the Gulf, under the guidance of the Hauraki Gulf Forum, but this coalition comes along and rides roughshod over that mahi at the whim of commercial fishing.
"To exempt commercial fishing from the provisions in the Hauraki Gulf Protection Bill means the Government is prepared to allow stocks of various fish and marine species to tip over the edge into extinction.
"The Minister's spin about 'significant protection' should fool nobody. The Government is backtracking on marine conservation goals long established through community consensus, placing the ecological health of Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana at grave risk.
"This is how the Luxon Government approaches lawmaking - erode the agency of community-driven consensus, particularly where it relates to the environment - in order to line the pockets of their industry mates.
"The Bill had been supported unanimously by coalition parties at the Environment Select Committee, with careful consideration of different uses of the Gulf. So to come in at the last minute and exempt commercial fishing in this backhanded manner is another undemocratic trait of this Government.
"Be it tobacco, fossil fuels, seabed mining or fisheries, this Government has made it crystal clear that the rules which apply to everyone else in our democratic and legislative processes don't apply to industry and companies who have the ear of ministers.
"New Zealanders deserve a government that acts in the interests of our whole community, not the lobbyists with the deepest pockets," says Lan Pham.
