In case you had not noticed, apparently it is election time… TRM have had so many curious questions and comments from inmates, unable to disguise their political allegiance, and from other anglers all about this particular issue. After hours, TRM is often more like a confessional for non-catholics, so we have decided to post some of the more important controversial stuff that is not mentioned in the news. Previously, as for other elections, we declined as we did not want TRM’s reports to become political, but this issue today is so important for the Taupo trout fishery, that SWMBO has changed Her mind (which is quite a common occurrence) and allowed it. I do not know of any other political parties that have made any stand on this issue. If they have I am sure we will soon know… your comments are invited. Try to keep them civil… To give you a break from fishy stories, TRM Daily Report will keep the election propoganda going for a few days, just for fun..
This election is one chance to:
Make Taupo Fishery the 13th Fish and Game Region.
Press release. 09/08/2017 NZ Outdoors Party
“The Outdoors Party will seek to change management of the Taupo Fishery from the Department of Conservation to Fish And Game” said Co-Leader, Alan Simmons. The fishery would become the 13th Fish & Game region and come under local management by an elected council of local people.
Since 1990 New Zealand’s most iconic trout fishery has been managed separately by DoC, on behalf of the Crown, whilst the rest of the New Zealand freshwater fisheries have thrived under Fish and Game. Alan Simmons said
“The Taupo fisheries team are under-funded, under-resourced and the fishery has suffered from a drop in license sales every year since to half of what it was. There is no communication with license holders and the Taupo Fisheries Advisory Committee, the anglers’ only opportunity to input into the fishery, has failed completely.”
In contrast, fisheries managed by Fish & Game are run by angler-elected Councillors and provide extensive research, communications and feedback for their license holders.”
The Taupo Fishery is of vital importance to the region, bringing in upwards of ninety million dollars per year to the local economy, but has been pared to the bone by DoC, with rangers and fisheries scientists now largely absent.
“The Fish & Game model could allow for Ngāti Tūwharetoa, owners of the Taupo lake bed, to have permanent council positions and a much better say in managing a resource that has become very important with local Maori for both food and sports fishing.” Alan Simmons said. “Now that the annual payments for the use of Lake Taupo are no longer tied to license sales there is no reason for the Department of Conservation to continue with a small marginalised management team at Taupo that does not fit with the Department’s preservationist culture.”
The NZ Outdoors Party recognise that agreement of the Tūwharetoa Maori Trust Board is central to this proposal.
Alan Simmons Co Leader NZ Outdoors Party Ph 07 386 7576 0274 980 304
To provide more political balance, to indicate it is the issues – not the parties – that are of concern, last week we posted on facebook the views of Don Braid, Boss of Mainfreight, as follows:
Govt in slow lane – Mainfreight boss
Mainfreight chief Don Braid has called time on the Government’s leadership saying New Zealand needs to be led by visionaries – not “a couple of accountants”.
“I think they’ve stopped listening to us. And I think they think they know better than us. And that’s a problem I think for a Government that’s been around for a long time,” Braid said.
In a video interview for the Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom Election Survey, Braid acknowledged the National-led Government’s fiscal focus had been invaluable as New Zealand worked its way out of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis.
But he claimed the country had forgotten about investing for the future.
“The infrastructure of the country both in transportation, education, housing, water – all those things have been forgotten about in our view,” he said.
“And now we need to have an intense look at where the country sits to fund the growth of the population, to fund the tourism that the country has found – which is all good for us, but we’ll lose it if we don’t look after it.”
Asked why the Government took its eye off the ball, Braid blamed its focus on prudent fiscal responsibility.
“With all due respect, we’re sort of being run by a couple of accountants, rather than visionaries, and I think the country needs some visionaries.”
The Herald: “What you’re talking about does seem quite a severe indictment on the current politicians who are running the Government.”
Braid replied: “Well, I think the indictment comes when you have a current Government who have been in power for three terms, who then decide on the basis of electioneering suddenly they find money available for certain projects to actually tick the political landscape box. Whereas perhaps it might well have been better that if they’d continued to invest over a longer period of time the voter would’ve understood that they’re the government for the next term.”
The Mainfreight group managing director suggested New Zealand needed to rethink the political landscape.
“I think having an Opposition that sits there and says no to everything – to have no bipartisan agreement on health, on education, on investment in our infrastructure, across political lines – has created the environment that we’ve got.”
Like many chief executives responding to the Herald survey, Braid favours giving the regions access to the GST earned in their area to help fund local infrastructure.
“I think this old style of sending all our tax money to Wellington for them to decide what they do with it as if it’s their money, and dish it out when they think it’s ready or when they think they need it for perhaps political gain rather than for economic gain for the country, might well be some of the problem.
“And therefore there needs to be a rethink of how we do that.”
Asked to rate National’s Bill English who has been Prime Minister for less than a year, Braid said: “Well we need some vision. And I don’t see that right now.”
On Labour’s Jacinda Ardern he was fulsome.
“Well it appears she’s got youth and she’s got energy, and she’s almost – without blaspheming – she’s the John Key effect for the Labour Party.”
He added the rider: “I do think they need to really seriously think about some of the policy that they are bringing to the table and as long as that’s not thought on the fly and has had some decent thought behind it before they release it, then she’s definitely got this current Government on the run in my view.”
In June Mainfreight founder and chairman Bruce Plested labelled NZ’s housing situation a “social disgrace”.
“The ‘market’ cannot sort out this problem. Real leadership and intestinal fortitude is needed now,” Plested said in the company’s annual report.
He decried a lack of respect for water quality and lamented NZ’s education performance where only 30 per cent of “children from lower decile school areas” were reaching the average for NCEA Level 3.
Taranaki-raised billionaire Stephen Jennings has also entered the election fray saying New Zealand is “engaging in a dangerous game of denial regarding our social and economic weaknesses”.
“In turn, this complacency is reflected in the prognostications and insipid policies of our mainstream political parties.”
Jennings launched his attack in the foreword to a book by Act leader David Seymour, entitled Own Your Future, saying issues such as equality in educational outcomes, housing affordability and the sustainability of our pension policies should be “matters of national shame”.