Dear editor,

Fisheries Minister Gerard Maley said recently in the NT News his CLP Government would continue to work towards phasing out gill nets.

As well Minister Maley says he wants to rebuild the NT economy, but banning gill nets, obviously, will destroy part of our economy.

As the NT Seafood Council said, the decision by the government “would be the end of wild caught barramundi and thread fin salmon from Territory restaurants”.

The NT News said that Minister Maley did not say why the decision to ban gill nets had been taken, except it was an election promise.

How scientific; how dumb.

The decision was only made because a desperate Labor party was in its death rolls and blindly tried to appease the Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the Northern Territory by promising to ban gill nets.

The CLP, also scared of losing votes, matched them by also cuddling up to AFANT.

So AFANT, a body that only is focussed on itself, was able to have influence over government policies.

But what is sad is that the government doesn’t seem to care about Territory families who like buy their local wild caught barramundi and thread fin salmon from their local restaurant or fish and chip shop.

The government is controlled by those one eyed vested interests.

Those interests seem to believe they own and control the fish in the sea just for themselves.

But there is hope if the government admits it made a stupid decision, and shows it supports non-fishing Territory families, and the commercial fishing industry, by showing some leadership and courage by reversing its decision on gill nets.

If they don’t my local fish and chip shop at Humpty Doo will be just Jed’s Chip Shop and the potato farmers down south will praise the NT Government for helping their economy.

And the idea of rebuilding the NT economy by destroying some of it, will highlight how populism overrides common sense and the science.

Gerry Wood, Howard Springs.