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NZ First
A ban on hunting under COVID-19 alert level 3 has been described as an “error” by Cabinet minister Grant Robertson, as the Government comes under pressure to allow the activity.
Hunting had been deemed risky and was banned under the lockdown, and according to Government advice issued on Thursday, the outdoor activity would remain banned.
But it appears Government ministers are now reconsidering such a ban.
New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones said he had been “plastered” by people in the Far North wanting to fish and hunt, a call he supported.
“I have no formal responsibility, other than as a Cabinet minister when we look at the options, but as a NZ First MP I realise that these calls [to ban hunting] have been made by the medical boffins,” he told Stuff.
Often people in rural and Maori communities would live off the land, Minister Jones said, and “metropolitan-based health decisions” may wrongly calculate the risk posed by hunting and fishing in provincial New Zealand.
“I understand the anxieties of the hunting community, I myself have been like a Captain Cooker boar prowling my boundary fence looking for a hole to tentatively escape.”
The new level 3 restrictions announced Thursday specified that low-risk activities will be permitted as long as they are non-motorised, meaning there will be no boating but swimming and surfing would again be allowed.
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