The Greens bear responsibility for capitulation to NZ First and Big Fish – Stuff.co.nz

OPINION: A little over two years ago Environment Minister Eugenie Sage was celebrating.

New Zealand had declared victory in a bid to eradicate mice from the Antipodes Islands, a remote sub-Antarctic archipelago 760km southeast of Dunedin. The invasive pest, probably introduced on a shipwreck, preyed on rare bird chicks and eggs, invertebrates, and plants and competed with seabirds for food.

The success of the Million Dollar Mouse project gave the majestic, but critically endangered, Antipodean wandering albatross a fighting chance.

High death rates and slow breeding mean the species could die out within 20 years. Mice were a threat but experts believe the birds were also at risk from fishing trawlers, the birds become entangled in longlines and drown.

READ MORE:* Lost at Sea: Labour and Greens split over Campbell Island sanctuary* Fishing industry under fire for killing endangered albatrosses* More than 10,000 seabirds caught by commercial fishermen since 2013* Greater observations and cameras on fishing vessels is needed, report finds

Getty-Images

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.

But despite Sages best efforts to safeguard what is left of the dwindling population, the Greens were again forced to swallow a dead rodent.

Hook-shielding devices would help prevent the needless bycatch of seabirds. Around 90 per cent of our seabirds are threatened and last year commercial fishing boats killed an estimated 14,400.

But the Government failed to make use of the device mandatory in new fishing guidelines introduced in May.

Its just another surrender to NZ First, a party which is well compensated with campaign donations to champion the commercial fishing sector.

Silvia Scali

There are only an estimated 63 Maui dolphin left.

Since they joined the Government in 2017, the Greens have given up the fight for a marine sanctuary in the remote Kermadec Islands, and an extension to a reserve in the pristine Campbell Islands.

In 2018, Stuff revealed Foreign Minister Winston Peters caved into threats of legal action from the industry and hastily dumped a suite of conservation measures, six years in the making, to restrict bottom-trawling for orange roughy on the high seas.

The Government lobbied for a Talleys vessel to be taken off an international blacklist, after it was caught fishing in a Kaikura marine reserve. The skipper was later fined more than $15,000 for the breach.

In February, a report revealed the troubling state of the Hauraki Gulf. Despite being a marine park, the reported commercial catch of fish was 30 per cent greater than before it was established. Stocks of snapper, tarakihi are decimated. From this month, the catch will be reduced but experts agree the fishery needs a complete break to recover.

Scott Hammond/Stuff

Crayfish are functionally extinct in the Hauraki Gulf.

Most conspicuously, there has been glacial progress in a plan for compulsory cameras on commercial fishing vessels, due to be rolled out in 2018. The legislation was introduced after repeated scandals where the industry had illegally dumped nets of fish and dead dolphins.

The cameras would capture the haul and record any interaction with protected species. Industry heavyweights have successfully stalled the policy by arguing the transparency is too costly.

Blame for the delay has been laid at the door of NZ First a fact apparently confirmed (and then retracted) this week by Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash in a leaked telephone call.

Ross Giblin/Stuff

Stuart Nash referred to fishers as 'dodgy buggers' in a leaked phone call.

There have been a handful of wins for the Greens a plan to protect Hectors and Mui dolphins was slightly better than marine advocates expected. The Government will also create an enormous marine reserve off the east coast of the South Island, torpedoing fishing industry proposals for less-ambitious protection.

But it falls well short of international expectations to protect 30 per cent of marine areas only about 0.5 per cent of New Zealand's waters are in no take reserves.

It would be unrealistic for a party to join a coalition government without acknowledging the inevitability of compromise.

Stuff

Green Party co-leader James Shaw says NZ First are breaching its coalition agreement with Labour.

But the Greens must accept their share of responsibility for their capitulation and the weak progress on oceans and fisheries policy, both touchstones of the environmental movement.

Winston is as Winston does. His contumacy exploits James Shaws desire to appear constructive and collegial and undermines the Greens, who are less Government allies than rivals.

The 4000 species at risk of extinction in New Zealand will probably die out before Peters rewrites his playbook.

Its time for the Greens to draw a line in the sand. If they make bold environmental policies in their campaign, they must not be empty. Some must come with a guarantee of bottom lines.

Otherwise, there is little point in getting back into bed with NZ First, a party that stands for nothing but standing still.

Read the original:

The Greens bear responsibility for capitulation to NZ First and Big Fish - Stuff.co.nz