Treasury changes the rules

Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 31

Treasury changes the rules

_ LECTRICORP inherited Ruataniwha Station in 1988 along with the core assets of its * business — the power stations. The former Electricity Division’s lands should have gone through an allocation process, similar to those that were handed over to Landcorp and Forestcorp. However, Treasury officials refused to allow officials from the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for the Environment, and Forest and Bird staff to assess the conservation values of the these lands until the weekend before they were handed over. Thousands of hectares of river beds, lake shores, native forest and tussockland were to be given to Electricorp (they only paid for the generating capacity and plant — the land was free). To save face government ministers agreed that Electricorp’s non-core assets would be handed back to the Crown for allocation through the State Owned Enterprises land allocation process. But as soon as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and the Ministry for the Environment stopped playing an active role in SOE land allocation, Treasury changed the rules. Now they are claiming that if the Department of Conservation wants ex-Electricorp land, they have to buy it from the Crown! Does this mean that DoC may have to stop recovery work on the endangered black stilt, nearby, to find money to save one of the best natural areas left in the Mackenzie Basin? Mark Bellingham Write to: Maurice McTigue, Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Parliament Buildings, Wellington and Rob Storey, Minister for the Environment, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. Ask them to ensure that the forest and tussock communities of Ruataniwha will be allocated to the Department of Conservation as a reserve, at no cost to the department.