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Dear option4
supporters
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 web site
at ../outcomes.htm
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. ../letter16.htm
Please,
feel free to reply with your comments as you see fit
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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