Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki today welcomed the
Minister of Conservation’s announcement that he will
remove clauses allowing sale and disposal from the
Conservation Amendment Bill but says the whole Bill needs to
be dumped.
“Whatever his intent regarding land sales
in the Bill it was never going to be accepted by many
people. Over 60% of people rejected the idea in a poll this
week. However, the fight is not over” says Catherine
Delahunty Chairperson of Coromandel Watchdog of
Hauraki.
“The Bill should not be amended it should
be dumped. The new economic development purpose clause at
the front end of the Bill is an attack on the conservation
purpose. The law already allows commercial concessions
across the conservation estate, but this new purpose clause
directs that DOC allow development to the” greatest extent
practicable” . We know this means more mining and other
harmful impactful activities on DOC land and we will be
calling on people to submit against this purpose and the
Bill itself.
“We have not misunderstood the clauses
or the intent of this Bill. If Government want to grant
concessions and dispose of small land blocks which are not
conservation related, they already can, Only 2% of
concessions are ever declined. It’s already a development
focused management approach which allows mining in important
conservation forest with threatened species such as the fast
-tracked Wharekirauponga mine consent for Oceana Gold behind
Whangamatā. They already have undermined conservation and
ignored important Te Tiriti issues, and this Bill will
sabotage even more of the DOC lands. The Government
doesn’t seem to grasp that protecting the conservation
land development supports local economies such as the
Hauraki/Coromandel.
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If they want to write a new
amendment to allow international tourist levies that would
not cause outrage, but they should be talking to tangata
whenua about that issue as DOC land is ancestral Maōri
land.” Ms Delahunty said
She said that approximately
24,000 submissions have already been submitted and people
are asking what is their status now and does the July
deadline still apply?
“This is what happens when the
Government drafts an utterly unacceptable Bill and is forced
to change it in the middle of the submission period. We want
the Minister to immediately dump this draft and rewrite an
amendment that doesn’t prioritise development on DOC land.
It is clear that the public mandate does not exist, the
engagement with hapū and iwi has not been robust, and its
is clear that the country wants conservation land for
conservation. This is an election issue they must address by
dumping the Bill immediately,” Ms Delahunty
said.
