GDC did exact opposite of capitulating

Manu Caddie

Opinion

I couldn’t believe the line in the report that says Council “capitulated to central government regulations”. That’s one of the most ridiculous statements in the report (that also has some good suggestions) and I can see why the Mayor is so incensed.

GDC opposed the proposal for a National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forests (NES-PF) when it was first proposed by a Government that the Chair of the Land Use Inquiry was a Cabinet Minister in.

The same National-led Government took the process off the Ministry for the Environment, where national environmental standards rightly sit as instruments of the RMA, and gave it over to the Ministry for Primary Industries. MPI appointed a working group dominated by the forestry industry. Company executives then wrote rules that help them maximise profits and shift the ecological and infrastructure costs on to the community and the environment.

In 2015 Council, along with some hapū on the Coast, registered strong objections when the same Cabinet approved the draft NES-PF, and GDC reiterated its concerns again last year with the current review of the NES-PF.

GDC did the exact opposite of capitulating to these regulations because staff and councillors have seen the catastrophe coming with a one-size-fits-all set of permissive national rules. And what choice did Council have, as a statutory authority, but to follow the rules set by central government that councils are, by law, subject to?!

Since 2018 when the NES-PF became operative, GDC has taken a wide range of steps to address the challenge posed by an industry that was given a licence in the NES-PF to wreak havoc in the region:

Council beefed up the compliance team from two consents monitoring staff covering everything, to now having eight or nine, soon to be more than a dozen apparently.

Council has also taken legal action against a growing number of forestry companies for consent breaches and has had seven successful prosecutions to date. That’s way more forestry prosecutions than any local authority in the country. More prosecutions are still being pursued.

Council has established its own taskforce dedicated to identifying opportunities to seek Compliance Orders from the Environment Court where poor practices are evident.

The monitoring and compliance system seems to be working effectively now, but the Inquiry Panel strangely seem preoccupied with the poor practices from 2008 to 2017 when the ideology of “industry self-regulation” was promoted by Wellington.

The Woody Debris Taskforce proposed in the Inquiry report sounds like another reprise of numerous industry-led working groups and advisory groups to Council that over the past 10 years have supposedly been focused on slash management strategies and solutions. How has that worked out? If there is a Woody Debris Taskforce, the forestry industry should be advisers to it but put individuals who prioritise the environment and safety ahead of profits on it.

I hope Forestry Minister Peeni Henare will come out and pull the slash out of the streams and off the beaches himself if or when the catchers he just announced funding for fail. While the industry keeps promoting slash catchers, they haven’t addressed the increased risk posed to people and property downstream, and who thinks such structures built into streams are in any way enhancing Te Mana o Te Wai?

The bigger issue, however, is regional plan changes. This is what we need GDC to urgently focus on, as proposed in the Inquiry report and already actioned by Council after the petition in January called for this to be prioritised. Councillors have been given permission to now act with immediate effect — let’s see if they do.