Ministers clash over Hauraki Gulf protections
Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has come out swinging against National’s push to further protect the Hauraki Gulf, saying the party’s policy would cost the country up to $250 million as it would breach a major treaty settlement.
But Cabinet colleague Tama Potaka has rejected the attack and said National’s policy would not impact the settlement.
Potaka launched a policy at the National Party “BlueGreen” conference on Saturday to restrict commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf, pushing against a decision his own Government made last year.
“The coalition decision in 2025 to allow commercial fishing in two of those 12 HPAs (High Protection Areas) in the Gulf has caused widespread concern from the hundreds of thousands of users of Auckland’s key recreational waterway,” Potaka said.
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“National will look to reinstate the ban on all fishing in the High Protection Areas. A further decision, to allow bottom trawling in some designated trawl corridors in the Gulf has also been controversial so we will review that also.”
Jones, who was speaking in his role as a NZ First spokesperson, said if enacted this would “essentially cancel” the Sealord deal - the 1992 “full and final” settlement with Iwi that gave them 50% of the Sealord company and a substantial quota of fish caught through the Quota Management System.
“I can predict with absolute confidence that the full and final fishery settlement will be essentially cancelled - because you won't be able to catch snapper and related species, in the area where the species are largely found,” Jones said.
“To terminate commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf represents up to $250m worth of loss to the Māori Fisheries Settlement. That means someone’s hospital is not going to be built. That’s a lot of hip and knee operations that aren’t going to happen.”
Jones argued this was the case because snapper and related species in the Quota Management System were largely caught in the Gulf and National’s proposal would end that
Steve Tarrant, CEO of Iwi-owned fisheries company Moana NZ, agreed with Jones, saying the only way to catch those species economically was in the Hauraki Gulf and through trawling.
“There are certain species that you can’t catch in economic quantities in any other way,” Tarrant told The Post.
He said a “certain segment of society” wanted to impose its will on tangata whenua without consultation.
“The fishery has never been in better health. What problem are people trying to solve?”
The Hauraki Gulf Forum’s last report in 2023 found that the Gulf was “turning a corner” on protection but said there was still huge pressure on the marine environment from commercial fishing.
“Fishing methods such as bottom trawling and Danish seining damage the seabed and the animals and plants that grow there. Undersized or non-target fish are captured and discarded. Some changes are very difficult to reverse. For example, historic mussel beds once covered much of the Firth of Thames but were completely removed by dredging in the mid-20th century, and have never recovered,” the report reads.
The Gulf Forum is a statutory body tasked with monitoring the health of the area.
Potaka rejected any notion that the policy would breach the settlement.
'High Protection Areas were always intended to provide genuine protection, and if elected we will restore that integrity while upholding our Treaty obligations and existing fisheries settlements,“ Potaka said in a statement.
“New Zealanders expect clarity and consistency, and we are being upfront that protecting the long-term health of the Hauraki Gulf is the right course for its future and for the country.'
Environmental groups have long complained about the impact of commercial fishing on the Gulf and across New Zealand waters.