Thursday, June 04, 2020



Still getting what they paid for

Last year, in the face of public pressure to better regulate New Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry, the government finally anounced a bullshit trial scheme for cameras on boats. The trial would apply only to a limited number of boats fishing in Māui's dolphin habitat. But all fishing boats would eventually be required to have cameras, from 1 July this year.

The government has just quietly delayed that, until 1 October 2021 - a 15 month extension. There's no press release, and no explanation, so they were clearly hoping no-one would notice. And in the absence of any proper explanation, the only one we have is the history of large donations from the fishing industry to a key government Minister. I guess his donors are still getting what they paid for.