Tim Donoghue starts blogging

Tim Donoghue recently swapped from the Independent Financial Review to the Dominion Post, and hence now contributes to their group blog – Inside the Beltway.

He did what I think is his first blog post yesterday, and it is a good one – all about the breakdown in relationships between Jim Anderton and the fishing industry. It’s a godo topic for a blog post.  While there have been individual fisheries stories, it is timely to have someone look at the overall state of the relationship. And I didn’t realise how badly Anderton has been getting hammered in court as he keeps trying to act against the Fisheries Act. Some quotes:

Last week, Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee released a financial review paper which in part found relations between the fishing industry and the Fisheries Ministry were at a very low ebb.

Reacting to this observation Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton noted industry was going through a painful time at the moment and would do well to look in the mirror, rather than blame the ministry for its problems.

By week’s end however the boot was on the other foot and it was Anderton who needed to purchase himself a large, vertical mirror for self-examination purposes.

Anderton went on the offensive on Friday after the High Court at Wellington delivered a decision finding against him and his ministry over their handling of catching rights for orange roughly in fishing area one…

Rather than thinking about an appeal most engaged in the fishing industry hold the view Anderton and his ministry would be better off endeavouring to implement the 1996 Fisheries Act as it is actually written, rather than going off on their own little tangents.

If ever there was an example of just why relations between Anderton, his ministry and industry are at an almost all time low, it’s the Antons litigation.

Little wonder the captains of the commercial fishing industry are quietly and diplomatically asking themselves the question: who should be looking at himself in the mirror now then – eh Jim?

As I said, a very interesting blog post on an area not often followed closely.