Tenure Review - Glenaray Station, Southland

[Mark Geddes]

With most submitters in favour of the preliminary proposal it will be interesting to see what the public's opinion is if the Minister approves funding for this significant tenure review decision.


Massive Southland station could become conservation land

[Mark Geddes]

Will anything be any different under the current government to the last when looking at the issue of tenure review.  There is still strong criticism of the bill from many who know the process well and one of those groups are the high country farmers who oppose the bill.  The end result for the majority of those that have gone through tenure review is positive and that should carry some weight. 

Should the government not amend the current legislation to prohibit the misuse of the system (such as re-subdivision beyond the intent of the substantive proposal) that has happened in a minority of cases rather than end tenure review completely.  Is there room for compromise?  Have matters progressed too far?

[Brent George]

Like many things in politics and life - it appears that a minority of 'events' (in this case "re-subdivision beyond the extent of the substantive proposal") have directed the review of Tenure Review - and potentially the end of Tenure Review (TR) as we all know/knew it.

The voices of the Lessees should carry some weight.
The voices of past Ministers - some who may be said to have had a conflict of interest by being Ministers of LINZ as well as DoC, and who had strong green ties - should not hold any greater sway on the outcome.

But in any event, the TR process was starting to draw to a close before the moratorium was emplaced.  And there are still some reviews currently in the pipeline that will continue to a conclusion. 
According to the LINZ summary www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/crown-pastoral-land/tenure-review-process-and-properties at 31-March-2021, there 
are 138 Pastoral Leases (PL) that have been reviewed (45%), and 138 PL that are not in TR (45%) so 91% of PL have been addressed.  And then there are 7 PL's at the substantive proposal stage so these will presumably progress, leaving just 20 PL (6.6%) out of the process if TR is ended by the Pastoral Lease Bill. 

[Brent George]

And this is Forest and Bird's commentary on the Crown Pastoral Land Reform legislation, currently before the Environment select committee.
Stuff - Environment: 20-April-2021
A golden chance to protect New Zealand's high country....

The proposed [Crown Pastoral Land Reform] bill is a vast improvement over the old legislation, with tighter consent processes, monitoring, reporting, and new enforcement powers.  In Forest & Bird’s view, it still may not be enough, ultimately pitting our endangered natural world against farm development.  In that balancing act, bit by bit, the natural environment is always going to lose.