The Green Room
'Our' minister of conservation does it again!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4569314/Ministers-step-in-on-DOC-lease
Of course DOC will deny it but they have to don't they!
Almost ready to give up the fight when this s*** continues to go on!
There are direct ways of influencing decision and indirect ways.
Although this is reported as a case where the Conservation and Agriculture Ministers got directly involved and convened a meeting to get a decision from DOC, the damage appears to have laready have been done by DOC staff much earlier. They invited the farmer to apply for a renewal of his grazing licence when they should have simply cancelled it when its term expired.
The Lake Ellesmere Conservation Plan drawn up with participation from all interest groups had previously agreed that dairy cattle grazing into the lakes waters edge was severely damaging both riprian vegetation and the lake's water quality. Why then, when the grazing lease expired, was that not the end of the matter?
The reason is complex but comes back to a raft of mixed messages been sent to DOC staff from their senior management led by their Director General that they should have as a top priority sucking up to business including farming because that gives DOC political credibility. This was never the intention when DOC was established with widespread public support in 1986 to provide a clear and uncompromised voice to government on nature conservation matters.
The confused messages from higher up in the DOC organisation clouds the good judgement of these DOC staff making day to day decisions on conservation matters. Despite often a very clear legal position and nature conservation imperatives they will think of all sorts of ways to avoid making a tough call and simply saying "no".
Because of this failure by DOC staff to state a clear and emphatic message, commercial applicants are then sent the message that if they only push DOC a bit harder and use every political influence that they can, they will eventually get approval to carry out their inappropriate commercial activity.
With good leadership of the department, the DOC staff member involved supported by his/her manager should have simply have been confident to say "No your grazing lease that has been shown to be damaging to the environment and water quality has expired. It will not be renewed and this is in accordance with the Waihora-Lake Ellesmere Conservation Plan that everyone has agreed to"
Equally right from the outset, we would not see the green light subtly signalled by DOC leadership in Canterbury to an Australian multi millionaire family (The Harveys) who want to freehold a very important part of the Craigieburn Conservation Park to build the sewage works for their proposed alpine resort.
High country farmers would also be clear that they cannot use Conservation Parks for "emergency grazing" when their own feed budgeting plans are inadequate in the face of snow or drought. Instead they will have to buy in feed like every other farmer.
People who take their dogs into Kiwi sanctuarys and National Parks would be clear that they will be prosecuted by DOC using the full force of the law.
It is too easy to blame Ministers for decisions that often have their root cause in a lack of clear and supportive leadership from within the department.
Very intersting. I think that New Zealanders are much less environmentally friendly now than they were in 1986. This really disturbs me. Interesting talk about grazing on conservation land. Conservation land is there to be as unaffected by humans as possible. When we were going on holiday to see Milford sound in the 1990s (When National was in before) the bus driver was very hostile to DOC and the environment and said how good it was that rich landowners were sticking their stock in national parks to graze and thumbing their noses at DOC and how good it was to have invasive lupins growing on the river beds. AS for the people taking their dogs into kiwi parks that is disgraceful and I wonder how all these people who think 1080 kills kiwi can think that 1080 kills more kiwi than dogs when a single dog wiped out 500 kiwi in 1987 and I wouldn't be surprised if the people who take their dogs into kiwi parks are in the anti 1080 lobby.
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