Media Statement
For immediate release
Friday, 28 January 2005

ORNZ slams Te Kaha's 'wet bus ticket' sentence

Outdoor Recreation NZ's Paul Check today slammed the "wet bus ticket" community service sentence handed down to paua-poaching Maori activist Te Kaha, saying that the country's fisheries would continue to be plundered until tougher sentences were imposed.

"The man should be in jail," Mr Check, chairman of ORNZ, which is affiliated to United Future, said.

"This is serious criminal behaviour and it's about time the courts really recognised that," Mr Check said, adding that he was concerned that ethnic and politically correct influences were at play.

"The fact of the matter is that the law has been broken in a deliberate and calculating manner.

"The punishment should fit the crime and send a clear message to all poachers and black marketeers that the wholesale pillaging of our fisheries resources will not be tolerated," he said.

Ends.

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