The Fisheries Amendment Bill is fundamentally flawed and does not deliver a better future for our fisheries. Our marine environment. Or us. Specifically the Bill will:

1. Remove environmental safeguards, allowing the Minister to set catch limits without considering the wider consequences of fishing on the marine environment and other species.
2. Shut the public out of having a say in changes to catch limits for up to five years, passing more decision-making power to commercial operators.
3. Prioritise exporting and exploiting our fish. Kiwis will be left with the leftovers and a degraded marine environment.
4. Subsidise commercial operators so they can continue current practices, including trawling and dredging, while depleting a public resource. 
5. Reduce transparency and public oversight, ban public access to onboard camera footage.
6. Remove minimum size limits for certain species on commercial boats. Allowing commercial operators to keep and sell baby fish before they’ve had the chance to reproduce. *(The PM has said this will be removed at the Select Committee stage).
7. Prioritise short-term commercial interests ahead of rebuilding fish stocks and protecting the wider marine environment.
8. More fish thrown overboard. Relax the rules to allow for more dead, dying fish to be legally dumped overboard. Further entrenching the use of indiscriminate, bulk harvesting fishing methods.
9. Restrict the public’s ability to legally challenge the Minister’s fisheries decisions.