by Kevin Hague
The Press this morning carried the news that new Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson has ordered a review into the advocacy role of her department.
The story is not online for some reason, so I’ve reproduced the first few paragraphs below:
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson has ordered an investigation into her department’s advocacy role – a move that has alarmed conservationists.
Criticism from farming groups and others about the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) involvement in resource management hearings prompted the review, Wilkinson said.
“I feel that I want to see if that criticism is justified or not,” she said, just weeks after taking over the conservation portfolio from Tim Groser.
There was no time line for the inquiry, but officials were already working on it, she said.
“I don’t have a feeling for which way I want to go. I just have a feeling that it should be looked at.”
Any moves to curtail DOC’s advocacy role would be extremely concerning.
DOC plays a key role advocating for our environment in resource consent hearings all over the country.
It is uniquely placed to do this, because as a government department it has the resources and scope to take environmental impacts all over the country into account holistically in a way that groups and individuals in local areas cannot.
It’s also not something the Minister can just review willy nilly. DOC’s advocacy role is enshrined in the legislation that establishes it and its functions, and to change this would require a law change and the select committee consideration that goes along with it.
We’ve heard nothing about this review – what its terms of reference are, who is involved, whether external stakeholders will be consulted – and the Minister needs to front up. I’ll be asking some written questions of the Minister in the next few days and will keep you posted.
It’s a real worry that the new Conservation Minister seems to be being swayed by private interests to undermine the public value of her department, especially so soon after taking over the portfolio.
[Update 5.10pm The story is online now here]
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Media | Parliament by Kevin Hague on Tue, February 9th, 2010
Tags: Kevin Hague
More posts by Kevin Hague | more about Kevin Hague
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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“Overall pretty encouraging that the Government is going to pursue some economic reform that will increase the size of the National cake…”
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Speaking of the ‘Mandate’. New Zealanders are too stupid to understand that if you vote in the N/A’s you agree to them doing anything. If you agree to more law and order you agree to hanging. If you agree to a bit of national standards you agree to wiping out of teachers’ unions which was always the game plan of National/Act. I know you love all nature’s creatures but National/Act creatures? Isn’t that going too far?
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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“Come to New Zealand its just like everywhere else”
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No bro, those who work hard will be those who drive the bulldozers and do the drilling. They will get bugger all tax relief.
The people who will really benefit from the tax relief will be the senior executives who raise the finance and push the paperwork, the lawyers who steer the resource consents through, and the shareholders who do no work at all for their tax relief.
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It’s just a wind up isn’t it bro, you don’t really want the country dug up and stuffed do you.
I sense the good in you Darth Bro.
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Can National fall any lower in standards here? (yes, that was an intended pun…)
This is almost a candidate for ‘three strikes and you’re out’, if they can’t find a Conservation Minister who can actually understand the portfolio….
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The Government’s first round of RMA changes significantly weakened the ability of communities and NGOs to pursue concerns about the environmental effects of resource use proposals. Fish and Game have had the clearest possible warning from Agriculture Minister David Carter that they should butt out of RMA processes or they will rue the consequences. Now this intent to shred the role and functionality of DOC. This is a planned and sustained attack on the ability for the public interest to be considered in resource management decisions.
It’s often the case that DOC is the only voice that can speak up in defence of conservation values, when environmental modification activities are proposed. If their ability to do this is removed or constrained, or else if Wilkinson forces a self-censorship (and there’s already evidence of chilling, with DOC pulling out of or not joining the debate over applications with critical conservation impacts)with her public comments – and who knows what she’s saying to Al Morrison behind closed doors – then almost nothing will stand in the way of massive environmental and conservation damage.
But, of course, getting away with environmental murder is now nakedly the Government’s plan. The Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament today said “This year the Government will also be looking at regulations that may be preventing natural resources being used most productively, or in some cases being used at all”, before going on to confirm Government’s intention to mine conservation land, facilitate petroleum exploration and drilling, and “removing the regulatory roadblocks” to even more freshwater storage and irrigation in Canterbury.
In other words, as National sees the world, the environment is just a set of resources to be exploited and a sink into which waste products can be poured. As National sees the world, if you somehow come to own or have licence to use a piece of land, then you should have absolute freedom to do whatever you want there – private property confers absolute right. As National sees the world the role of conservation is to provide a museum of species and ecosystems that used to exist in this country.
I hope the Blue-Greens have the good grace to hang their heads in shame today.
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“I don’t have a feeling for which way I want to go. I just have a feeling that it should be looked at.”
In other words, Wilkinson is the latest Nat floating a lead balloon to see if it will float with the public. If people don’t wake up and it does float, heaven help us. If people do get pissed, she’ll back off a bit and claim to be “reasonable” by only half gutting Doc’s advocacy role. Either way we lose. Time to lock and load, metaphorically speaking.
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PM Watcher,
Wow, I never thought I’d see the big backstory deal of this administration — their Maori futures call! So well done .. for here and/or anywhere else!!
Yes, Greenfly, the N does the trick for that particular fellow. Nothing substantive of course. So..another well done!
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DOC’s role was well and truly under the Nat gun then and it’s becoming more widely apparent now. Eric Roy, Nick Smith and even Guy Salmon have been dribbling at the prospect of these things for years. It’s no accident at all.
Ineptitude? Bullsh*t. Naked green and rat-cunning.
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Naked green is a far nicer thing (in my experience
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Mine the national parks and the damage to tourism has the potential to cause a blowout in the unemployment rate. And it won’t take long before such eco vandalism joins with dirty dairying to trash permanently the Clean Green brand.
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This is absurd, as if DoC weren’t already muted enough. Their expert field staff are already in the unenviable position of seeing first hand the impact of decisions that are increasingly going in favour of development and against conservation. This review will inevitably require DoC to withdraw any conservation advocacy and will place the entire burden of this valuable work onto NGO’s. This is unjust. We must support the NGO’s and all those who care about New Zealand’s natural heritage and oppose National’s appalling approach to conservation.
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Kate Wilkinson – attacking the spirit of our country right at its heart
Paula Bennett – attacking individual beneficiaries who can’t fight back
Anne Tolley – destroying education and attacking teacher unions
Shame they couldn’t fight for pay equity for women. I guess they don’t need to in their current roles. National/Act, after all, is always about self-interest. Why would you endorse a moneytrader as a leader otherwise.
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It was most interesting for me to find that Don Nicolson, that lover of cow cubicles and current pig farm practices and chicken cages is on the committee for animal welfare!
Talk about placing people where they can do the most damage to this country’s self respect. David Carter is a flim flam man just like Key.
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With weak opposition and no sign of it strengthening soon, National are free to pursue what ever direction they want.
If this turns out to be as bad as Kevin has said, I can honestly say I will put my social policy differences with the Greens aside and join the party.
I personally find the whole polarisation of NZ politics really disturbing, it is not good for our country and is certainly not sustainable in the long term.
I don’t think I have felt this disturbed since Labour were in power, I just hope that NZers make it very clear that wrecking the conservation estate is not acceptable.
I was in the Otira valley on Sunday, I was there a few weeks ago as well, and went back to photograph the Rata display. I was hoping it wasn’t all over.
Well I wasn’t disappointed, the valley sides and the head of the gorge were ablaze with scarlet as far as you could see, and far more than a few weeks previous.
I can honestly say it was one of the most glorious sights I have ever experienced, it sounds silly but it was actually quite emotional, I felt truly blessed to experience such a spectacular natural event.
Sadly this is one of the only places left in the entire country where the forest is largely as it was before European settlement.
For 100km south of the Otira valley the Rata have been almost entirely wiped out.
We have lost so much but thanks to DOC at least we still have places like the Otira valley which was protected from possums very early on. The people who had the forethought to advocate for this deserve the highest possible recognition, true pioneers of conservation.
We can not afford to compromise our remaining natural heritage for what is in reality a short term quick fix to our economic problems.
We must not let miners destroy our natural heritage unchallenged, DoC must retain an advocacy role.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGlliDBnsmk
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Don’t the Greens get this yet?
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Trevor.
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Didn’t I read someplace recently how the enzed stats people figured the diary cow population at 4mn+ — yep, that’s one for every human head of its population..
Which makes Don Nicolson’s “animal welfare” activities all the more important. Gotta keep the capital cow stock high.. and higher… etc.
Well here’s a joke to tellya what folks around here are in tune to. The local rag cartooned a farmhand fella in gum boots, vest and widebrim hollering ” great, see, double the production and no input costs!” And there beside him a four-legged cow, two sets of udders and no head.
Hey, I tell you, crackers like that are exactly why weird fits all for matters administration – conservation and otherwise – in enzed today.
personally I’d much prefer DOC to stick with facts in their presentations, mebbe answer whatifs in the same mode. Judges, commissioners, whatever, operating likewise. And politicians requiring they do exactly that.
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Yes, Bushbasher. We do.
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Is that enough?
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Is that enough? ”
Well I guess I could have a go at running the show as well, I just assumed you would want me to get to know a few people first!
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Ha! Get the West Coast sorted, then we’ll have a chat about the rest of the country.
Have you met with Kevin yet?
(I see Farrar’s given you your own thread.
Looks like a black hole to me!)
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We need to strengthen DoC’s advocacy role, not seek to diminish it further.
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“(I see Farrar’s given you your own thread.
Looks like a black hole to me!) ”
Could very well be fly.
Apparently I should stay over here with the socialists, was told we share a common delusion.
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“If there is a vision to this aspect of the government’s agenda it is not one born in the 21st century. More mines on conservation land and more roads everywhere else is a vision that belongs to the grand old 19th century tradition of Rip, Shit and Bust, where natural resources are infinite and developers are the agents of progress. Oh, and as conscience money for violating our national heritage, those mining companies will have to pay a pittance into a Conservation Fund. Thanks, guys. Flowers around a slag pit? Always a good look.”
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2010/02/10/gordon-campbell-john-key%E2%80%99s-agenda-for-the-nation/
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Shunda
Don’t do it!
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Floored.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Bro – Farrar banned me, permanently and twice
for implying that his opposition to good food in schools was because he’s a lard-arse, and because I kept challenging Key’s truthfullness. Can’t have that!
Your question, in reverse is the one I hoped you’d answer. I hadn’t thought about it. Can you tell me why you believe they shouldn’t?
I thought you were a big ‘freedom of speech’ guy?
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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I have to race off to work now (true, of course) and can’t get to a computer til around 4. I will do that.
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Don’t do it! ”
Well bro what should I do? You have a passion for animals and I have a passion for our natural heritage and I can’t bare the thought of big Gerry digging it all up.
I know you understand my position.
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Funnily enough, I’ve banned DPF – after he got quite abusive about me a couple of years ago, threatening my children & offering that if someone who knew me could post my address ‘he’d get someone to go round & sort me out’, which led to a whole side-discussion about ‘bradfording’, then he was politely hinted to that what he’d posted was illegal, & he took a few comments off the post. I have an offline copy.
Oh, and you’re bang to rights – he’s short, bald, fat and completely without self-control; and firmly believes that sex is merely a transaction, rape doesn’t exist (only women who haven’t been paid enough …) and a few other pearlers of intelligent cognition. Generally turns up to Journalism awards with local well-known paid escorts, lol. (I mean, ‘highly motivated young businesswomen’…)
This is the man who was Don Brash’s private press secretary pre-2005 elections, lol.
Shame John Key didn’t keep him on really, he’d have done them another injury & we wouldn’t be discussing the piss-poor performance of National’s Government this week….
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Gee Katie that’s pretty scathing!!
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He did the crime, he should do the time … see how it feels when your own policy jumps up & bites you on the bum?
Can’t find anywhere else to shove this, so sorry for the threadjack, frog, but here’s where out-of-towners can watch Jeanette’s valedictory speech, 5.45pm:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/AboutParl/SeeHear/PTV/
[frog: Thanks katie, I've just just highlighted this info with its own post.]
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Thanks Katie,
I hate having an unexplained aversion to people, but DPF just fits all the profiles of people you have to wash your hands after you’ve seen them, heard them, heard of them. You have just confirmed my intuitive attitude towards him.
I wonder how much arm twisting was required to have him on the good morning show? He hardly fits their ‘beautiful people’ profile. Mind you, Paul Henry…another failed National follower. Is TVNZ the graveyard of the rightwing hopeless and the obscene?
Apologies – I will try to desist from allowing this mean part of my sunny personality to cover up my sun.
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/opinion/3310145/We-ve-got-it-so-when-do-we-start-to-flaunt-it
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You’ve made my day and that, on top of Shunda’s coming-of-age calls for celebrations in my household tonight! There’s Elderberry Wine to be tried.
Bro’s attempts to throw cold water over us is more refreshing that upsetting, so I’ll raise my glass to him as well!
PM Watcher – it’s liberating to let it out on occasion and you do it with style!
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I understand why they have lost their freedom of movement, but don’t understand why they would lose their freedom to vote.
Why do you think they shouldn’t be able to vote and have you resiled from your opinion that they shouldn’t be able to vote on their release either (as stated by you on Kiwiblog)?
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Spinny spin, spin.
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I am thinking of starting a little printing press!!
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Write on Shunda! – (mine’s been running hot for years).
Glad to hear you’re getting into publishing.
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Oh, that’s the way to go, guys, DIY is the best!!!
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Why shouldn’t she want to know? Is she a pawn? ‘Any moves to curtail…’ – this is based upon speculation, therefore presents as a beat-up. A review is not necessarily a move to curtail. Patently neither the Government nor Doc is ‘enshrined’ in legislation. We are a democracy. Why can advocacy not be reviewed willy nilly? Surely anything can be? Are we afraid our advocacy does not bear scrutiny? To review is transparency, a part of democracy. I like the countryside as it is too, but let us not be afraid; we number more than an opposing Government. Let the review happen and let the findings come forward. New Zealand will respond based upon these.
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No Angela, we are not a democracy. Rodney Hide took that away from us by refusing access to select committee process. To even suggest that government will listen to us over something that can feed their greed suggests that you are naive.
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Not really on topic, but Gerry Brownlee on Radio National breakfast show just before 8.00 this morning discussing mining in our national parks; talking up RARE EARTH elements as being something they may be aiming for in there.
http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=rare+earth+minerals&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
He believed that the mining operation for these would be very small and non-invasive.
Obviously he hasn’t seen this:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec09/china_12-14.html
Though only holding 50% of the supposed reserves, China currently supplies 95% of the world’s requirements [mostly by undercutting other suppliers]. The need for these minerals in clean/green technologies such as wind turbines may soon be used as a stick to try and beat the environmental movement into line – but even China admits extraction is having a heavy environmental toll.
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Does John Key find uranium ‘sexy’ in the way Gerry Brownlee does coal?
I think so.
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