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Down Three to Go
12 March 2001
Dear option4 subscribers
Thankyou for making the effort to familiarise yourselves with the
complexities of the Soundings debate the defining of the nature
and extent of the right of the public to gather seafood from the
marine environment.
If you have been wondering why we’ve been off the air we’ve
been waiting for the submission review and analysis phase of the
process to conclude.
The Public Consultation phase of the debate produced 62,117 submissions
of which 61,178 supported option4. We actually received 71,467 individual
submissions in favour of option4 although many of these missed the
deadline for public submissions.
There was an independent review of the submissions. The Rights Working
Group subsequently produced its report. Then the Minister of Fisheries
Pete Hodgson issued a press release when he released these reports.
All of these documents may be found on the option4.co.nz website
in the Soundings section.
Just prior to the release of this information option4 representatives
met with Pete Hodgson in Auckland. Please take the time to read
the full minutes of this
meeting to satisfy yourselves that we are on the right track.
Please, feel free to reply with your comments as you see fit
Going, going,
gone
Finally, last Wednesday it all happened licensing was finally, fully
and completely rejected. One down, three to go. Congratulations
and well done option4 supporters.
However, don’t for one minute think that the demise of licensing
as an issue closes this debate. We must not forget, the whole Soundings
process is all about the defining of the Recreational rights. Only
when these rights have been defined and enshrined in clear, unambiguous
legislation can we (the public) consider how they should be managed.
Not beforehand.
option4 has already spent many hours discussing these reports.
We are in possession of copies of all submissions and are conducting
our own analysis to ensure your voice has been fully accounted for.
Several responses are underway.
There is a fair bit of reading here. Please do your best.
We will be reporting back to you within a week with more developments
and information.
Whilst 2,500 of us are signed up online so far, this is only a drop
in the bucket. It is only you, our online support base, who
we can afford to talk to, real time as the issues arise. So it’s
over to all of us to get out there and connect with the hundreds
of thousands of New Zealanders who care passionately about their
rights to harvest, many of whom are simply not online. More on this
next update.
Thankyou for your time and effort.
The team at option4
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