Fisheries Minister throwing New Zealand jobs to the sharks

The Mari­time Uni­on has slammed com­ments by Fish­er­ies Min­is­ter Phil Heat­ley about employ­ment in New Zeal­and’s fish­ing industry, and say they make a bad joke out of the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect jobs.
Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says Mr Heat­ley has pub­licly admit­ted that New Zea­l­and jobs are not a pri­or­ity in the New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry.
The com­ments were made at Parliament’s primary pro­duc­tion select com­mit­tee, when Mr Heat­ley was being ques­tioned about the object­ives in the 2030 Fish­er­ies Plan.
Mr Han­son says the Mari­time Uni­on is angry and per­turbed at the lack of any fore­thought by many of the major play­ers in the industry and the irre­spons­ible role of the Gov­ern­ment.
“We do accept some fish­ing com­pan­ies are being respons­ible and fish­ing their quota with state of the art ves­sels and New Zea­l­and fish­er­men, but unfor­tu­nately they are fish­ing in com­pet­i­tion with oth­er New Zea­l­and com­pan­ies in joint ven­tures with for­eign oper­at­ors.”
Mr Han­son says joint ven­ture for­eign charter ves­sels catch­ing New Zea­l­and quota use and often exploit for­eign crews from low wage eco­nom­ies.
He says prom­ises to use New Zea­l­and work­ers in the industry have been broken.
“The fish­ing industry is one of our most valu­able assets, and New Zea­l­and work­ers have the right to work in this industry as well as the respons­ib­il­ity to man­age this glob­ally endangered resource.”
Mr Han­son says if the private sec­tor is unable or unwill­ing to train and employ young New Zea­l­and work­ers, the Gov­ern­ment should be acquir­ing the ves­sels and train­ing New Zea­l­and crews to fish our waters.