Pee Kay: What Was Next Jacinda, Ceding Sovereignty?

The Strategic Tourism Assets Protection article I wrote last week was posted on Breaking Views and one comment said –

“No comment anywhere about the Options Development Group where the objectives of the mostly Maori members are to hand most of our Crown land back to Maori.”

Well, yes there was something, undeniably underhanded, afoot with regards to the Options Development Group. This was another sordid scheme contrived by Ardern’s government that, unquestionably, can do with exposure to some sunlight!

John Bell: New Zealand’s Constitutional Crisis - Where to for Treaty Principles?

With the recent defeat of the Treaty Principles Bill, New Zaland faces a constitutional crisis. With the exception of the ACT Party’s MPs, every Member of the House voted to reject both the principle that our democratically elected Parliament is sovereign and the principle that all New Zealand citizens have the same equal status before the law. Worse, the Prime Minister has specifically stated that there was nothing in the Bill that he supported.

David Farrar: Paying off objectors

Stuff reports:

Meridian Energy is not revealing the amount it has paid Ngāi Tahu as it seeks to renew resource consents for its Waitaki Hydro Power Scheme.

Last year Meridian signed agreements with Ngā Rūnanga o Waitaki (Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki), the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Central South Island Fish & Game which included financial settlements.

David Farrar: The Cathedral Cove scandal

Radio NZ reports:

The Department of Conservation has conceded there is no guarantee a walkway to cathedral cove will ever reopen but expects to know what may be possible by the middle of the year.

The walking track to the popular coromandel tourist destination was closed in February 2023 after it was badly damaged in extreme weather, including cyclone gabrielle.

Mike Hosking: This Government has lost the room

The joke story of the weekend was the revelation that DOC, as in the Department of Conservation, is handing out money it doesn’t have to reward people for learning to speak Māori .

I say money it doesn’t have because DOC has a multi-million dollar operating shortfall.

What makes the story a tragic tale of our times is that there is no actual requirement in any of the jobs they do for there to be Māori spoken. Tasks are not getting done because they are short of Māori speakers.

Peter Williams: Is there no end to the waste?

Fiscal discipline missing at DOC

On May 24th this year, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Conservation Mike Tully emailed other members of the senior leadership team and other line managers at the department.

This was soon after the Budget, where DOC did not get a significant increase in funding and is facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall.

Mr Tully is pretty frank. He wrote: “To be transparent, the initial view shows that we do not have sufficient funding to cover our basic running costs.”

Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is the problem with Māori co-governance

I was slightly surprised to read an article in the Herald today [23/2/22] in which Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson says Kiwis have “nothing to be scared of” when it comes to Māori co-governance of our assets.

But if you’ve been following the story of Te Urewera National Park, you’ll know that's not strictly true.

Thomas Cranmer: Minister Awaits Review into DOC Funding Hole

Multiple reviews are examining options to address a $25M to $40M funding hole in its operating budget and a reported $300M, 70,000 hour maintenance backlog for huts, tracks and visitor assets.

Following Friday’s revelation that Budget 2023 has left the Department of Conservation with insufficient funding to meet its basic running costs, Chief Executive Penny Nelson sent an email to all staff later that day addressing some of the issues raised in my article.

The email also sheds further light on the precarious financial position that the department now finds itself in. It makes clear that Minister Prime is aware of the situation and is expecting to receive the initial results of several reviews taking place by the end of August.

Thomas Cranmer: Department of Conservation Hit By Funding Crisis

Alarm bells have been rung by the department after its Deputy Director-General for Operations warns, 'the initial view shows that we do not have sufficient funding to cover our basic running costs'.

Following last week’s budget, alarm bells have been rung by the Department of Conservation. Just after 5pm on Wednesday, Deputy Director-General for Operations, Mike Tully, sent an email to senior staff advising them of discussions that took place on Monday with the senior leadership team relating to the 2023/24 financial baseline information for the department.

Tony Orman: A key election issue for 2023 – the Loss of Democracy

Politicians have always had a penchant to forget they are elected to serve the public and the public interest.

The rudeness of Henry May

Way back in 1974 I wrote to the Labour government and in particular the Minister of Internal Affairs Henry May about a government proposal to reorganise acclimatisation societies the predecessor of today’s fish and game councils.

The proposal was a thinly disguised attempt to impose state control on the politically independent acclimatisation structure of its democratically elected councils. Most concerning was the proposal for a national executive which would see sportsmen’s representatives in a minority to government appointees.

Politely but firmly, I made my opposition clear. I was not alone. Many trout anglers and duck shooters were concerned too.

The reply from Henry May was startling.

Point of Order: The PM goes batting for democracy while her Maori ministers announce more Budget boosts

Oh, look. More goodies from the government.

Today we learn of a $10 million boost for landowners, a $27.6 million investment over the next four years in research and innovation and a $30 million investment for primary and community health care providers. Budget 2022 is the budget that just keeps on giving.

But those announcements are competing for media attention with news that an independent assessment of stewardship land on the West Coast is delivering recommendations for revised land classifications.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is the problem with Māori co-governance

I was slightly surprised to read an article in the Herald today in which Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson says Kiwis have “nothing to be scared of” when it comes to Māori co-governance of our assets.

But if you’ve been following the story of Te Urewera National Park, you’ll know that's not strictly true.

Te Urewera National Park – as in Lake Waikaremoana, one of NZ's great walks – has been closed since August and only reopened again 9 days ago.

Why? Because it’s no longer run by DOC only.

For the last eight years, it’s also been run by the local iwi tuhoe under a co-governance model.

The problem is that most of the huts and many of the swing bridges were in dire need of repair but the iwi wouldn’t allow the repairs.

Bob Edlin: Treaty principles don't come from the Treaty – they come from the courts

A Supreme Court judgement in August last year has led to the Department of Conservation undertaking partial reviews of the Conservation General Policy and the General Policy for National Parks, to give better effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

And what are these principles?

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage told Point of Order:

“The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are not explicitly stated in the articles of the Treaty itself.”

Frank Newman: Relentless planners and you

Planners are never satisfied, and never give up. Central and local government have departments full of them - all charged with the task of regulating what landowners can't do on their land. Increasingly, permitted use rights once held by landowners are being replaced with discretionary rights exercised by council planning staff (and enforced at the landowners cost).

Underlying it all is preservation and a (false) presumption that landowners can't be trusted to do the right thing for future generations. Fortunately, Neanderthals had a more enlightened view of innovation and preservation.

Planners are dangerous people - dangerous in that they elevate their own perceptions of the world above those they are supposed to serve. In an ideal world landowners would be protected from such people by their elected representatives. They are our line of defence against socialist planners and the like of radical environmentalists such as the Department of Conservation (DoC); that's why we elect them.