The bill has passed its first reading and will be sent to a select committee.<\/p>\n
National MP Vanessa Weenink posted a video to social media yesterday. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Weenink posted a video to social media saying she still had \u201cmany concerns\u201d about the bill and asked people to participate in her survey about the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not believe this bill would be widely supported by my electorate and I want to be in a very strong position to argue for the opinions of my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones, speaking to media today, questioned why the National MP was making such comments about the bill, given it had been supported by the coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that the distant reaches of the National Party backbench are a long way from my wheelhouse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, my leader\u2019s office will take that matter up with the Prime Minister\u2019s office because we treat our coalition agreements with a great deal of seriousness, and I just think a bit of discipline is needed at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was a \u201cstrange development\u201d to hear concerns from a Government MP about legislation through social media instead of the \u201cchannels of coalition discussions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t run around trying to gain grace and favour with these dislocated voices who are more worried about undersized fish than the coherence of the coalition Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Jones didn\u2019t believe it was a breach of the coalition agreement between National and NZ First.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know from the Prime Minister that he agrees that elements of the coalition agreement we entered into with fidelity and integrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that backbenchers are getting hot and bothered about the fisheries issue, there are far more pressing concerns than the size of a snapper\u2019s tail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Jones was not happy with the National MP’s comments. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Jones also took exception to Weenink thanking a social media user who commented on her post, claiming Jones had a conflict of interest, given his connections with the commercial fishing industry.<\/p>\n
Weenink\u2019s response thanked the user for commenting on her post. She included in her response that she couldn\u2019t comment on the user\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n
Weenink said the Herald\u2019s request for comment was the first she\u2019d heard of Jones\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
She believed many in her South Island electorate, referencing keen anglers and those who were vocal about environmental issues, would be concerned about the bill.<\/p>\n
Weenink maintained she was \u201cnot doing anything that hasn\u2019t been approved by my leader\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier today, Luxon didn\u2019t answer directly when asked if he had allowed his MPs to publicly criticise the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very clear, we want to see the most egregious part of it, which is the commercial catch limits have been removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not going to be progressing and if we don\u2019t see that removed, we won\u2019t be supporting the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bill has passed its first reading and will be sent to a select committee. National MP Vanessa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,16574,5842,16426,7230,5782,118001,7794,33092,45647,1888,3087,71,2176,13489,16427,1362,17318,3556,111,43,139,69,1523,5502,7234,30503,2081,16860,312,7228,1361,61,1533,102],"class_list":["post-358227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-bill","tag-calling","tag-christopher","tag-coalition","tag-comments","tag-complain","tag-contentious","tag-deputy","tag-discipline","tag-first","tag-fishing","tag-from","tag-jones","tag-leader","tag-luxon","tag-made","tag-mps","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-partner","tag-partys","tag-promises","tag-raised","tag-reform","tag-says","tag-shane","tag-that","tag-to","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}