I subsequently went to the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) website and sure enough it is all there in black and white.
MfE and the Department of Conservation (DoC) are working together for the development of a national policy statement for indigenous biodiversity.
It then tells us the proposed plan “applies across public and private land, including terrestrial ecosystems and (in part) wetlands. It includes the management of biodiversity on private land where many of our threatened species, habitats and ecosystems are found”.
What arrogance.
For a start, it is a school teacher-ish approach assuming that the army of ‘experts’ charged with tracking our biodiversity gems will be welcome on private land. They won’t be.
It further assumes that the landowners are unaware and uncaring of biodiversity on their properties. That it will take some bureaucrat to both assess the problem and then provide a solution.
Dropping bombshells on Provincial NZ out of the sky, a bit like seagull droppings, will certainly not encourage any level of cooperation.
It gave me the impression of being written by a young graduate in MfE HQ, with a lifetime experience in biodiversity and absolutely no knowledge of life on the farm.
Finally, the approach is cowardly as it drops the whole project onto local councils. It won’t be MfE or DoC staff fronting up to farmers, it will be locals doing the MfE and DoC’s dirty work for them.
It will be an interesting political debate.
For a start, the Government will have realised a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.
Government will also know that nothing mobilises the provinces more than a threat to private land.
There is also a massive distrust of the Wellington bureaucracy and it’s their own fault. As with essential water and 10-degree slopes, they give the impression of not only being untrustworthy but incompetent as well.
So now we have Groundswell as a political ginger group, and there’s also the Rural Advocacy Network about which I’ve written.
Last election the provincial electorates, all true blue in the past are now majority Labour. That means many landowners supported the Government with their votes.
The Government will be aware of that fact and careful not to isolate rural NZ. It would be electoral idiocy to do so.
Politically farmers are also helped by the Māori vote. The Northland Te Kahu o Taonui hapū land trust have “serious concerns and reservations” about the land grab.
Logic would suggest that if an area is identified as a SNA, the landowner, Māori or Pākehā will lose control of it. In fact, the trust was told that if the programme goes ahead on your land “you won’t be able to develop it without resource consent from the council” and that is concerning.
My question to MfE and DoC is to ask if they had political signoff? Did Minister James Shaw support their document? More importantly, did he discuss the project with his Cabinet colleagues?
It takes a lot to get farmers to meetings and so far Groundswell has had hundreds turn out.
They’ve also been successful in getting local government support.
Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson posted her views on Facebook.
“This doesn’t just affect Māori and the farming sector because you as ratepayers are going to be forced to pay for this land grab by regulation,” Gibson wrote.
She went on to say how it will cost the Southland District Council an estimated $18 million just to do the assessments and planning projects. That alone will increase rates by 6%.
As I’ve said, politically it is interesting.
On one hand, the Government will be well aware of the political risks of riding roughshod over the provinces.
They will also be aware of the Southland debacle over the essential freshwater rules.
Pressure from Māori will also help landowners.
Groundswell has also done a good job calling farmers to action.
Last week, I wrote in Farmers Weekly that farmers needed to speak with one voice. My wish would be for Groundswell to be in the farmers’ political tent, thus avoiding the divide and conquer regimes we’ve seen in the past.
Feds have already put a line in the sand stating that any area should be truly significant, that existing use must be protected and that the Government must fund any additional costs for farmers.
That seems logical. Hopefully the Government will listen to common sense. They also need to bring their out of control and out of touch bureaucracies to heel.
I remain forever hopeful.
