Philippa Stevenson: Gamebirders bag cosy DoC deals

A feisty group of gamebird hunters have bagged a bigger than usual quarry - the Department of Conservation.

More than two years ago, the Wildfowlers Association trained its sights on the highly questionable practice of private deal making in the resource consent process when electricity generator Mighty River Power was after consents to continue operating its eight Waikato River hydro dams.

Last month it scored a bull's-eye.

In 2003, after lengthy proceedings before an Environment Waikato consent hearing committee, Mighty River was granted consents spanning 35 years.

But a troubling feature of the process was the many groups which made submissions and then withdrew them wholly or partly because they had made private agreements with Mighty River.

They included the Department of Conservation (DoC), Fish and Game, Forest and Bird, the Taupo District Council, the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board, Waikato-Tainui, Genesis Power and Carter Holt Harvey.

The Wildfowlers, too, got around the negotiating table but dropped out after becoming unhappy with the level of money Mighty River agreed to provide for a trust to work for the sustainable ecological management of the river and Lake Taupo.

The Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust is now up and running, providing funds for research.

Its members - DoC, Forest and Bird, Fish and Game, and Acre, Waikato's Advisory Committee for Regional Environment - were happier to have the money than trust to the vagaries of the consent process.

But Wildfowlers patron Mike Hucks said his organisation remained disturbed that bodies with statutory public duties like DoC and Fish and Game struck a deal rather than present information to the hearing committee.

The Wildfowlers dug into their own pockets to put up six hours of evidence on the impact of Mighty River's aggressive use of the river - spilling vast quantities of water through its dams at times of peak power demand - which was slowly destroying precious environments, Hucks said.

"The river can go up and down four to five metres daily - sometimes twice daily - and it is in the process of destroying absolutely irreplaceable wetlands. The normal vegetation is changed and consequently the habitat for wildlife is destroyed."

The Wildfowlers also took their concerns to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

The commissioner first criticised private deals, or side agreements, in a report in 1998 but none of those investigated then involved Government agencies.

DoC's and Fish and Game's deal with Mighty River struck the commissioner's investigator, Bob McClymont, as a disturbing trend.

In a report to the Wildfowlers last month he said DoC's side agreements were potentially detrimental to the environment because its failure to take part in hearings could mean consenting authorities had less information on which to base decisions. That could lead to conditions that were not as stringent as expected or warranted.

Secret agreements also meant scrutiny of public bodies was compromised and DoC "runs the risk of creating perceptions of complicity and impropriety".

And if either party to an agreement reneged, the only option would be to sue for enforcement of the contract.

Discussions between the commissioner and DoC over the issue prompted DoC Director-General Hugh Logan to issue the department's first set of guidelines for side agreements.

In December he advised the department's conservators that they must be prepared to explain why they had entered into a side agreement, including the outcomes expected for the environment.

The department had to be prepared to provide information to the public on any side agreements, and should ensure parties signing up to them were financially and technically capable of meeting their commitments.

Mr Logan's edict also said side agreements should not stop DoC taking part in consent hearings on aspects not in the agreement.

Mr McClymont said the commissioner remained concerned about environmental trade-offs occurring in side agreements.

For the Wildfowlers it had been a pleasing moral victory, Mr Hucks said.

"The only trouble is it doesn't assist the wetlands."