Eckhoff Gerrard: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5522] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT NZ) 
: 
 This is the part of the bill that is just so offensive to those of us from rural New Zealand who as I am sure has been pointed out in this Chamber earlier on have a huge historical and cultural attachment to the land. As one who has sold land I say that I still have a huge attachment to the first farm I bought in Balfour in 1972. When I drive past the gate I still have this feeling of attachment to the land even though I was paid a substantial sum for it and I moved on. But it does not mean that I can then go back to that property and demand of the new owner that he should not transfer his property from a sheep farm as it was to a dairy farm as it now is. What gives me the right to do so? 
Hon David Carter 
: This bill. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: This bill will give that right and that is what is so offensive. I have a property in Roxburgh. I make no apology to the Committee or to anybody else for using personal examples. Part of the reason I am here in this House is the Resource Management Act and the impact it is having on the farming community. I have a site and I am sure the Green Party will be pleased to know this of some cultural significance to Ngai Tahu. It is an old quarry site that I have ensured I did not put the cattle in there and I did not put the bulldozers through it. I have looked after it. But here is the rub. I said to Edward Ellison of Ngai Tahu that I understand that this 5 or 10 acres next to the main road is of such importance to him and that I would sell it to him and to Ngai Tahu for $1 so that he can reaffirm his spirituality with this land. Do members know what the reply was? The reply was: “No thank you. You are to continue with the responsibility of this asset and we will accrue the benefits.” 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: You pay the rates. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: My colleague is absolutely right. “You pay the rates you have the responsibility you make sure the fences are absolutely correct and you make sure that nothing is disturbed. You have all the responsibility; we get the benefits.” That is what the farming community rural landowners landowners throughout this country feel so grossly offended about. We are perfectly happy to ensure in many cases that the cultural and historic significance of much of our properties is maintained. But the offensiveness of this bill which comes in and takes away the asset without any compensation is just outrageous. 
What will happen is that we will create an attitude in rural New Zealand that does not exist today that this is no longer mine who cares. Who gives a stuff? I am not going to make an effort to protect this. So I have also to protect the natural area of my property where the goats constantly eat some of these herbs and high values. I go down there and chase them away or shoot them to make sure they do not destroy these values and I do it for nothing. 
As soon as Chris Carter’s Department of Conservation takes away that area from my control I will not give a damn. It is the Government’s responsibility. This is what this bill is doing to every farmer every landowner in this country who has had the good sense—and it is good sense—to ensure the high values that so much of society today values remain with that property with that farmer and with that natural attachment. I say again that that is why this bill is so offensive. It ensures that the farming community picks up the liabilities but the asset is taken away for nothing.