A government review of Fish and Game has been hijacked by the Department of Conservation and complicit individuals resulting in the trout fishing and duck shooting public being denied a say, says the New Zealand Outdoors Party.

Outdoor Party co-leader Alan Simmons, a life long trout angler and hunter, said he had endeavoured to get documents from Fish & Game NZ who had “buck passed”responding to the Department of Conservation.

“The response was most disappointing but not unexpected from the Department of Conservation bureaucracy,” he said. “This is very much a democracy issue, a state grab for control of Fish and Game - a thinly disguised attempt by DOC and government to gain control and shut down a strong environmental advocate."

Fish and Game has been a strong advocate for the environment over many years instrumental in gaining Water Conservation Orders for prized rivers, the saving of many wetlands and advocating against uncontrolled dairying expansion that has depleted river flows and resulted in dangerously high nitrate levels in rivers and aquifers.

The government set up a review panel with then Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage who said “The review is limited to a health check of the governance of Fish and Game. It is not a review of Fish and Game’s statutory roles or functions” .

“The review has gone way beyond this assurance and legislation changes will be required. Government will be trying to ram this through, trampling over the fish and game public to avoid implementing it in an election year,” he predicted.

Alan Simmons emphasised that Fish and Game was “politically independent” with three yearly democratic elections. Fish and Game is entirely funded from trout and duckshooting licence fees at no cost to the taxpayer but the review proposes paid government appointments on national and regional councils.

“The hijacked review now proposes government appointees, among them even the chairman of the national council. It’s like a communist state seizure of control,” said Alan Simmons. “Consultation has been token and lacking. Even worse is the huge conflict of interest where the chairman of F&G is being paid by DOC to ram through the changes. License holders should be furious"

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