Fishers not benefitting from law that was passed for them
Territorial At-Large Representative Neville ‘Sheep’ Smith has called on the government to revisit the Food Security & Sustainability Act (2022) to ensure it is working for local fishers.
The law was passed in April this year and aims to put a number of measures in place to improve fishing and farming locally.
But during a recent sitting of the House of Assembly, Smith said fishers are not benefitting from many of the improvements the law was supposed to bring.
“Up to now, I haven’t seen or heard a policy and what is going on. And the fishermen are really asking for some help,” Smith said.
He said the government should do some follow-ups to ensure that the policies in the law are implemented. He mentioned that the law had promised to implement a policy to address spearfishing so fishers can benefit from the use of that technique.
But to date, Smith said this policy isn’t in place because the law hasn’t been fully implemented.
“I don’t understand why this bill was passed so long and some of the things we put in place aren’t happening. We talked about spearfishing and how we were going to do some policy to fix that and nothing has been done as yet,” Smith said.
The Food Security and Sustainability Act also speaks to the development and review of the policy for sustainable agricultural production, food security and food safety.
It is also supposed to ensure sound and sustainable production, management and use of foods while addressing the impacts from climate change and disasters on food production.
But during a recent sitting of the House of Assembly, Smith said fishers are not benefitting from many of the improvements the law was supposed to bring.
“Up to now, I haven’t seen or heard a policy and what is going on. And the fishermen are really asking for some help,” Smith said.
He said the government should do some follow-ups to ensure that the policies in the law are implemented. He mentioned that the law had promised to implement a policy to address spearfishing so fishers can benefit from the use of that technique.
But to date, Smith said this policy isn’t in place because the law hasn’t been fully implemented.
“I don’t understand why this bill was passed so long and some of the things we put in place aren’t happening. We talked about spearfishing and how we were going to do some policy to fix that and nothing has been done as yet,” Smith said.
The Food Security and Sustainability Act also speaks to the development and review of the policy for sustainable agricultural production, food security and food safety.
It is also supposed to ensure sound and sustainable production, management and use of foods while addressing the impacts from climate change and disasters on food production.
