The process was launched in 1998 by a government that at the time did not want to be a landlord of 303 pastoral leases covering nearly two million hectares of the South Island. The premise of tenure review was for lessees to freehold productive areas and retire the balance to conservation following a commercial transaction. The freeholding of 345,000ha has changed the activities and landscape of the high country but critics have superficially focused on those landowners with land suitable for subdivision or converting to dairying.
Media coverage portrays tenure review as a cash windfall for lessees, ignoring the fact they are negotiated transactions for the exchange of property rights and values. Lessees have exclusive access and rights to pasturage and quiet enjoyment but require approval for any soil disturbance or to increase stock numbers. They own improvements such as buildings, roads, soil fertility and fencing and are responsible for weed and pest management.
Tenure review commentary also ignores the 302,000ha added to the conservation estate, creating or enabling the creation of 10 conservation parks and that the Department of Conservation has benefited from commercial arrangements on that transferred land and it manages 60% of the contentious Mackenzie Basin
Similarly, the wider public has not been told how struggling pastoral lessees free of the limitations of a government landlord have strengthened their businesses. Following tenure review Bendigo Station in Central Otago converted scrub-covered, rabbit-infested land to vineyards. Others have added tourism and recreational activities creating jobs and benefiting local communities.
Tenure review followed due legal process but, unfortunately, the ignorance and political agenda of some has wrongly portrayed it as manipulative lessees lining their pockets.
Neal Wallace
