At this point, the only ones not claiming credit for Jones’ fish size backdown are Jones himself, the fishing industry and large fishes.
Shane Jones was his usual mix of belligerent and incomprehensible as he explained why he’d backed down on a plan to drop minimum fish size limits for commercial operators. Yes, prime minister Christopher Luxon had raised concerns about “diversionary expressions of unnecessary energy” over his Fisheries Amendment Bill, he told reporters. But no, he hadn’t been influenced by anyone outside the hermetically sealed bubble of NZ First. “There’s only one person who is capable of instructing the matua and that’s the rangatira Winston,” he said.
That may be. But as Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, Shane is born free but everywhere is in chains. Despite the matua’s claim to only have one guiding light, dozens, hundreds, perhaps even millions of non-Winston-Peters-shaped entities are claiming credit for making him U-turn on the most controversial proposal in his bill.
Which one was it that made him execute his backward political manoeuvre? Though the suspect list is long, it starts with the prime minister. Luxon’s statement, put out at 1.32pm on Wednesday, drew a direct link between a meeting with Jones and the small fish backflip. “This morning I spoke to New Zealand First minister Shane Jones and he agreed to take out the sections of the Fisheries Amendment Bill that remove the minimum size limits,” it said.
But did another part of the coalition actually save the sprats? “I gotta tell you, we’re not happy about this bill,” Act leader David Seymour told people tuning in to a live Q&A on his Facebook page on Tuesday night. When the exemption was dropped the following day, his conservation spokesman Cameron Luxton put it down to Act’s concern-sharing abilities. “Fishers spoke up, Act listened and shared those concerns, and now we’re seeing a better outcome,” he said.
The opposition also credited the reversal to its own efforts to channel the raw power of concern. Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick may have the most convincing claim. “The Greens ardently oppose this complete nonsense and will be doing everything in our power to ensure that it does not pass,” she said in a video posted at 1.07pm on Wednesday. The Greens may be more powerful than we thought, because within 20 minutes of that video being posted, Jones backed down.
Several of these politicians said “people power” had ultimately driven the government to rethink its position on offing baby snapper. The most powerful may have been Ultimate Fishing TV host Matt Watson. He ran a campaign against Jones’ bill, saying the minister was just serving his “friends in the commercial fishing industry”. “There is no other logical explanation. You just have to look where the donations are coming from. How outspoken he’s been. He is paying the piper.”
Jones responded with a series of increasingly enigmatic insults. “Well look, there is the saga of the small tail fish, reflective of the biology of the person you’re referring to,” said Jones, when asked about Watson in one media conference, before walking off stage. “Make of that what you will, I’m not sure the minister of oceans and fisheries was making a lot of sense there,” responded a confused Samantha Hayes on Three News. In another interview, he accused Watson and others of mixing their messages, or in his words, “talking out of different orifices“.
In the end, the small fish with at least two orifices claimed victory. It was backed by an army of recreational fishers and everyday New Zealanders, who spent weeks tipping angry comments into politicians’ social media channels like chum over the side of a commercial fishing vessel.
But what would fishers be without fishes? They’ve spent the last few decades being systematically annihilated by bottom trawling and other unsustainable practices which have left New Zealand’s stocks severely depleted. Surely the voice of baby tarakihi, snapper and indeed trevally spoke loudly.
By the time Jones actually carried out his backdown, most New Zealanders on both land and sea had issued some kind of denunciation of him. The only ones not under suspicion were Jones himself, the fishing industry and large fish. “Santa Claus seemed to be the only person not claiming to have put a stop to this controversial change yesterday, that’s how insane it all got,” said RNZ political editor Jo Moir on Thursday morning. Santa Claus couldn’t be reached for comment. But the Santa Claus guppy is a small pet fish, available locally for $16, and it would surely be against Jones’ legislation. Just like everyone else, it deserves some credit.
