In its submission on proposed changes to the Government’s management of South Island pastoral leases, the lobby group the High Country Accord said proposed changes will re-weight property rights.
But that cannot be done without the agreement of lessees.
They say the Government want to impose additional purposes against which all other activities, including pastoral farming, are subservient, which is unacceptable to lessees.
Lands Minister Eugenie Sage proposed changes to managing pastoral leases includes ending tenure review and making decisions by the Commissioner of Crown Lands more accountable and transparent.
Tenure review is when the Crown and lessee agree to split a pastoral lease between conservation and freehold.
Sage says the end to tenure review is a commitment by the Government to be a long-term owner and steward of South Island high country leasehold land.
She also wants greater management of natural landscapes, indigenous biodiversity and cultural and heritage values.
Her proposal requires the commission to seek more guidance on and apply standards to applications for activities like burning and forestry, requiring the office to get more expert advice, to consult more on discretionary consent applications and to report regularly against a monitoring framework.
The accord, formed in 2003 to promote and protect the rights of pastoral lessees, warns the extent the Crown can achieve those goals without the agreement of lessees is limited by the terms of the leases designed in 1948.
“These contracts delineate the Crown’s contractual rights of environmental control.
“Officials have noted that the Crown does not have a right to control ecology and improve biodiversity.
“That is, however, precisely what is inherent in the Government’s proposed outcomes.”
The Environmental Defence Society and Royal Forest and Bird support the proposals, saying indigenous biodiversity and landscape values must be managed better and public access improved.
They want the consenting process altered to provide for clear environmental bottom lines, decisions to follow the Resource Management Act, to make technical advice in decision-making mandatory and increase public consultation.
The accord says the Government must continue to respect its contractual obligations for the 34 leases still completing tenure review
In November 2017, 125 of the 303 pastoral leases had completed the tenure review process in which 302,000ha was added to the conservation estate and 346,000ha made freehold.
The submission conceded public perception and understanding of tenure review is poor and not helped by perceived problems from a small number of cases of inappropriate subdivision or farm intensification.
That has led to some poor political decisions.
“The lack of a widespread understanding of the nature of the lease contract and poor levels of public understanding of the benefits which have been achieved by the majority has had the unfortunate result of a bad political decision.”
The same focus has not been paid to monitoring the Department of Conservation’s management of the 302,000ha of former pastoral lease land it now manages.
The accord said the decision to end to tenure review was made without effective consultation with lessees and the Government’s reasons lack merit.
It supports the advice of Government officials that tenure review is the most effective mechanism to safeguard biodiversity, landscape and cultural values and submitted it should be retained and tactical and operational failings fixed.
There needs to be recognition the high country today is much healthier than in 1948 when the legislation enabling pastoral leases became law.
That improvement will continue under the stewardship of leases, provided the lessor collaborates with its remaining 170 lessees instead of imposing its will through regulation.
“The future relationship between the Crown and lessees will require the Crown to stop periodically abusing its position of dominance and instead recognise the positive contributions made by high country farmers and their families to the environment, their local communities and the national economy.
“It requires the Crown to recognise the alienation to lessees of the property rights represented by the lease contract and that unilateral action is not an effective path to its desired outcomes.”
The discussion document attracted 2500 submissions.
