“What would you say if the government banned salmon and trout from New Zealand’s freshwater?”

This was the opening question from the newly anointed Hunting and Fishing Minister James Meager to myself, (and our president), during a Zoom select committee hearing comprised of three South Canterbury primary-industry subcommittee ministers last year seeking submissions on the freshwater amendment to the Resource Management Act.

VIDEO RECORD https://vimeo.com/showcase/10758268?video=976093057 From 1:16:40

Both Casey and I were brassed off to say the least after the work we had put in to make our written submission and after all our preparation for our oral presentation. Our ten-minute time slot disintegrated into farce.

There is a hierarchy of obligations in Te Mana o te Wai that prioritises

1. First, the health and well-being of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems
2. Second, the health needs of people (such as drinking water)
3. Third, the ability of people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being, now and in the future

The government has removed this hierarchy.  In other words, they’ve banned consideration of environmental or human health.

In essence Meager was threatening to take away salmon and trout if anglers persisted with our freshwater advocacy.

Why?

Ironically trout have long performed a role as the “canary in the coal mine” in the Northern Hemisphere as an indicator of freshwater quality.

National Party Election Pledge:

RECREATION,

CULTURE AND FOOD

National’s plan for Hunting and Fishing

National will:

• Support the efforts of Fish & Game and work with them to promote the interests of anglers and bird hunters including enhanced monitoring and science.

• Amend legislation and repeal the Natural and Built Environment Act to better protect trout and salmon as ‘Valued Introduced Species’ for the enjoyment of sports fishers”.

Biography

In response to the Primary Industry select subcommittee fiasco I completed a google search to learn more about the National Party’s “rising star”.

While we all commend a person who succeeds despite a tough start, I think New Zealand has had enough of “smash and grab” politicians from state houses.

By amending the first priority of Te Mana o te Wai and threatening to ban trout, the canary in the coal mine, the minister shows little understanding of the crucial role freshwater plays for all living things.

The following content was “cut and pasted” from public sources on James Meager:

Ngai Tahu. Timaru born, educated at Timaru Boys High School.

Raised by a solo mother beneficiary from a family of freezing workers, brought up in a State House, Meager’s early life was impacted by police visits and alcohol:

“I did grow up in an environment where alcohol was a problem.”

He grew up in south Timaru, with the Road Knights around the corner and cousins in the Mongrel Mob.

“I think about that sometimes, whether there is a thing in my life that made me go down one pathway and not the other,” he says.

“My first living memory is being sort of coaxed out from underneath the bed by a police officer.”

Meager has strategically “front footed” his “Sam Uffindell” past where he was kicked out of his residence for his drunken loutish behaviour while a second-year law student at Otago University.

As the replacement for disgraced Andrew Falloon, (the previous National Party candidate for the blue chip seat of Rangitata), who was forced to resign two weeks prior to the 2020 election, it appears Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s judgement is lacking.

A “self-employed” consultant who assisted Chris Bishop and other National Party members from his student days to employment as a solicitor with a Christchurch law firm for three years one month, there seems little in Meager’s past to qualify him for improving Fish and Game, with its conservative heritage and its long established values of decency and sportsmanship.

I guess this biography explains his behaviour at the Primary Industries select sub-committee zoom meeting.

This Sharon Murdoch cartoon sums up the Coalition government’s economic libertarian values.

So much of what true New Zealanders value in the form of law and institutions is being trashed.

A Press Cutting;

“Rangitata MP James Meager shot to some prominence when he was made the new Minister for the South Island in January. The portfolio was created and given to him to “unclog the system”, and give the under-represented South Island a distinct voice in the government (Meager is a minister outside Cabinet).

But a broad new portfolio raised as many questions as answers. According to a briefing paper, Meager and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would set the responsibilities for the role. How would Mainlanders know if their new minister was making a difference?

Now, a few months in, Meager has an answer. His efforts, he tells The Press, would be measured in how much the South Island economy grows in the next 12 months.

He already had his eye on several issues not unique to the South Island, but certainly more pressing there. He was working with Regional Development Minister Shane Jones on water storage and wanted to improve rural connectivity to remove signal “black spots” on highways.”

“Reforms to modernise and strengthen Fish & Game New Zealand will improve the national management of hunting and fishing resources and advocacy, while maintaining local control over local fishing and hunting rules, Hunting and Fishing Minister” James Meager has announced.

Fish & Game councils will be required to better consider the interests of other stakeholders such as farmers and the aviation sector in decision-making; and a national policy will be required around advocacy and restricting court proceedings to within that policy. “

He’s already been touted as future prime minister material in the hushed whispers of the press gallery.

But before he considers a portfolio of that heft, he first needs to make it through the three he’s just been sworn into – Youth, Hunting and Fishing, and South Island, the latter of which has just been created.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130268530/timing-is-everything-the-rise-of-aspiring-politician-james-meager

Author

Dr Peter Trolove BVSc MBA MSC (Aquatic Veterinary Studies)

Executive member NZFFA

Footnote

I was raised in a once prominent South Island farming family. I spent most of my 50 year career as a production animal veterinarian. Vets are part of the team supporting the farming community.

This involved roles including animal welfare, animal & Public Health

These comments reflect my own experience and response.

They are not the collective response of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers.