Mike's Minute: The Significant Natural Areas decision is a relief

Of all the things that the new Government has done in their first 100 days, the Significant Natural Areas decision might just have brought the most relief.

It's not a major issue in the cities, but in rural New Zealand it has been a nightmare.

It is like so many other ideas that on a piece of paper might have had some merit. But once out in the field it caused harm, worry and upset as officials went nuts. Now, post the instruction to councils to not bother carrying on, it was pointed out that there needs to be a law change and the Government might have got ahead of themselves.

But guess what? The Government make the rules and laws and if a law needs changing to enact their desires that is exactly what will happen, therefore the kerfuffle over the weekend is pointless.

A major part of the issue was, and is, it was councils who did the deciding and, given we have too many councils, we have too many interpretations.

Until you own a chunk of land, as in acreage, you don’t truly understand its effect and hold on you, and your investment and care of it.

That was probably the most egregious part of the whole idea.

The people who came up with the concept were mainly from the city and, given it was the Labour Party, they had little, if any, real connection to farming or farmers.

It was predicated around the idea that somehow farmers are environmental thugs and their main objective in the morning is to ruin the landscape, abuse the stock and wreck the future of the property.

There was also an overlay of the cultural outlook that plagued so much of what Labour did. Was there something from years ago that may be of significance? Well, you can never be too careful.

There was no understanding that farming is hard work and farmers are professionals who take their job and their property seriously and, just broadly, the idea of setting out to destroy your business, which is what land is, is stupid anyway.

The bloke who made the announcement was Andrew Hoggard, the associate environment minister and a bloke who knows a bit about farming. He, by the way, is the sort of person we need more of in life and politics - people who speak from experience and have been there and done that.

A person's land is sacred. Its ownership, and therefore stewardship, is intricately tied up in who they are.

But then along came Wellington, via a local council, and started telling you what you could and couldn’t do with what you had forked out for and put toil and sweat into.

The fact the inventors of that idiocy couldn’t see the practical and real world outworkings of their ideology is why they are now no longer running the place.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.