Torment of bureaucracy gone mad

CHESTER Borrows and a couple of fellow National MPs have a public meeting in Wanganui on Monday as part of the Rules Reduction Taskforce's crackdown on "loopy" regulations.

Their target is primarily excessive and restrictive red tape in local government, but perhaps they should take a look at the Ministry for Primary Industries.

That ministry's prosecution of Clive and Nicki Higgie, owners of Paloma Gardens at Fordell, reached its predictable collapse in Wanganui District Court yesterday when the final charges against Mr Higgie were dropped, as we report on Page 7.

The charges in this bizarre and dubious case involved the importing of exotic trees and followed a dawn raid on the Higgies' property three years ago.

Since then, the well-respected Wanganui couple have lived with the gnawing anxiety of an impending court battle, and the threat of a half million-dollar fine and five years' jail time.

And for what? This victimless "crime" concerned a tree that may have been foreign to New Zealand when a seemingly arbitrary list of natives was drawn up in 1997. Then again, it may always have been an NZ native - nobody can really say - and the 1997 list is almost certainly far from complete.

One supports our biodiversity police when they go after the bugs and mites that threaten the valuable and vulnerable horticulture industry. But one tree of uncertain origin poses little threat to anyone.

The ministry simply could not see the wood for the trees - this looks like a case of over-zealous bureaucracy and the Rules Reduction Taskforce should get the chainsaw out.

One wonders how much money from the public purse has gone into this futile prosecution. We do know the Higgies have spent plenty on legal fees. Perhaps they have grounds for a compensation claim.