11. JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) Link to this
to the Minister of Fisheries
What did Budget 2009 deliver for fisheries management in New Zealand?
Hon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Fisheries) Link to this
Budget 2009 has delivered for fisheries, particularly in the resourcing for front-line fisheries officers. Budget 2009 will see more fisheries officers patrolling New Zealand’s coastline. It fulfils National’s pre-election promise of ensuring that any resourcing that was not spent on improving fish stock health and fish stock management would be shifted to areas that did improve those. Policing was one of my concerns while I was in Opposition, and I am very pleased to be able to deliver it as the Minister.
There is to be a large increase, from 172 to 250, in the number of front-line honorary fisheries officers over the next 4 years. In terms of full-time paid fisheries officers, they will also increase from 95 to 104. In this Budget we have reversed the slashing of the number of fisheries officers.
In the Budget we have put much more resources into recreational fishing research. First of all, we are putting resources into a new catch reporting system for charter boat operators. Additionally, I was keen to see more research being undertaken in the recreational fisheries area, and funding has been set aside to do that. We have an amazing recreational fishery. We are very fortunate to have it in New Zealand, and getting data on what has been caught and where it was caught is vital to making it even better.