Roy Heather: General Debate 
Roy Heather: General Debate 
[Volume:634;Page:6092] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Three years ago the National Union of Public Employees asked the Ministry of Fisheries to allow its fisheries officers to use pepper spray and batons because it was concerned about the safety of the 85 front-line fisheries officers. What the union was met with was a stony silence—a stony silence from a Minister who is out of touch with what fisheries officers do and the issues they have to deal with. 
Upholding the laws of our country is an important and honourable if sometimes dangerous occupation. Law enforcement comes in many forms including that carried out by the police customs officials and those who—like fisheries officers—protect our environment. Fisheries officers are our first our last and often our only line of defence against those who would plunder our coastline. In 2004 a report was released by the Ministry of Fisheries on the risk of assault to fisheries officers. It gave many statistics noting amongst them that fisheries officers are at the same risk of serious assault as our sworn police officers and it noted that the information does not support the idea that it is becoming a less dangerous occupation. In fact the report noted that if anything assaults were under-reported. 
More than a third of reported incidents from 1999 to 2003 involved the use or the presentation of weapons. The Minister of Fisheries knows that this is a dangerous job because he has given his permission for fisheries officers to have flak jackets which they use. But he seems to think it is unreasonable that they should be able to protect themselves by using any other means including pepper spray and batons. The ministry’s 2004 report noted that fisheries officers have a similar likelihood to sworn police officers of being assaulted with a weapon. We get very upset when our police officers are assaulted but it seems that the Government is not the least bit worried about our fisheries officers being assaulted. 
Fisheries officers had to wait 3 long years before the Minister of Fisheries deigned to give them an answer in the form of a letter from Jim Anderton letting them know that they would not be allowed the means to defend themselves. It was a firm no and that continues. Today in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 a letter was published from the Minister stating that he would not allow fisheries officers to use guns. In fact he seems to have misread the communication from the National Union of Public Employees which was asking not for guns but for pepper spray and batons. It seems that the level of defence has escaped the Minister; he probably does not know the difference—indeed he is completely out of touch. 
From 2001 to 2003 13 percent of officers each year reported incidents where they were assaulted or seriously threatened. The Minister has many objections; in fact he is full of them and he voices them loudly and often. He says there are not enough assaults to justify defensive weapons but he cannot read his own statistics because one in 20 fisheries officers in the last year received a serious assault. He says fisheries officers should withdraw from perilous situations and call the police. Well it would do the Minister of Fisheries good to get out and see what these people do. He should take himself up to a remote coastline with a fisheries officer who deals with situations on his own and is hours away from the nearest police assistance. 
Yet he will not allow fisheries officers to protect themselves. He worries about a domino effect. He says that pepper spray and batons will lead to Tasers and guns. Nobody is asking for Tasers and guns. He is completely out of touch and he does not understand how fisheries officers are trained. On an international spectrum there is an acknowledged scale of force. Currently fisheries officers are trained in open-hand encounters and carotid holds which are very dangerous indeed if used under particular circumstances. But our fisheries officers receive significant and very good training and it is merely a matter of good luck and good training that assaults are at the level they are not higher. Pepper spray and batons are a lower level of defensive forms of self-protection. The Minister of Fisheries not only does not understand the danger that he is putting these people in he does not want to understand—all in the name of upholding the law and guarding our coastline.