by Helen Clark (former PM)

The current New Zealand Government has introduced a shocking Conservation Amendment Bill to Parliament.

The NZ Alpine Club background briefing says that the Bill proposes to change the “core functions of DOC, requiring them to enable the economic use and development of PCL ‘to the greatest extent practicable’. This is a paradigm shift in how public conservation land has been managed and means that conservation values may be sacrificed if the economic benefits of a proposed use or development are considered significant enough.”: https://alpineclub.org.nz/…/conservation-law-reform…

The Bill makes it much easier for the Government to sell conservation land – see this Forest and Bird backgrounder here: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/…/save-conservation…

Public submissions are open on the Bill until 2 July: https://www3.parliament.nz/…/conservation-amendment…

Our conservation estate has been built up over many, many decades to safeguard our natural heritage for its intrinsic values and as public estate for all New Zealanders to enjoy. This Bill is a scandalous and destructive attack on this estate and on the rights of New Zealanders.

I urge you to make your objections to this known via a parliamentary submission and through your social media and other networks. This is election year and this must be a major issue. If we lose these precious areas from public ownership, they are gone forever.

Although we don’t often agree with Helen Clark, we share her concern about this. Of course, she doesn’t mention the restrictions that the Jacinda regime endorsed regarding the ability of certain iwi to keep non-members of those iwi off public conservation land. –Eds