Greenpeace calls “balderdash” on MPI claims

Greenpeace is calling for MPI to immediately release any documentation addressing the serious issues found during two extensive investigations into New Zealand’s fisheries, the reports of which they then buried.

Over the past week, two leaked Government reports written by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) have been released by Greenpeace, exposing industrial scale dumping and under-reporting of fish within the Southern Blue Whiting and Hoki fisheries.

Publicly, MPI had only released abridged versions of the reports and left out the more than 70 critical recommendations made by its compliance team to address the serious issues within the fisheries.

In response to the leaked reports, MPI is now claiming its procedures have changed, with manager of compliance investigations, Gary Orr, saying the process is better and New Zealanders can have more confidence in the level of reporting.

Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, says he’s not buying it.

“It’s complete balderdash. I can’t see how after all this dishonesty – which includes burying these damning reports in the first place – the industry and MPI would just have us believe that everything is peachy,” he says.

“We’d like to see a publicly released version of any MPI documentation that addresses each of the 71 critical recommendations made by compliance officers in response to the thousands of tonnes of fish that have been dumped and underreported within the Southern Blue Whiting and Hoki fisheries.

“If MPI really has dealt with these issues, there will have been extensive further investigation and documentation. We challenge MPI to release that today.”

Greenpeace has called for a full and independent inquiry into the New Zealand Fisheries Management System and its regulator MPI.