Davis Kelvin: Freedom Camping Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Davis Kelvin: Freedom Camping Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 August 2011. Volume:674;Page:20576. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe. The Freedom Camping Bill went through the Local Government and Environment Committee. I am not a member of the committee but I am Labour’s spokesperson on tourism. I first of all want to give a plug for tourism because that is basically what this bill is about. That is the industry this bill affects. Tourism is our biggest export earner. It is responsible for a huge slice of our GDP. One in 10 New Zealanders is employed in a tourism-related industry so it is really important that we do what we can to support the tourism industry. 
There is a problem regarding freedom camping and I can say that from personal experience up north. Just last year I attended a meeting in Kaitaia where there were about 40-odd people who are involved in the tourism sector. I stood up and gave my little explanation as I have just done now about the benefits of tourism. I was quite stunned to hear a woman who lives in Waitaki which is about 20 kilometres south of Cape Reinga cut me off and say that tourists are a pain in the neck. She said they are a pain in the neck because they are dumping waste litter rubbish human waste and all sorts on the side of the road next to creeks and in rivers and it is polluting our waterways. I was quite taken aback by that attitude towards tourism. So there is a need to do something but I do not know whether the something that I am reading in this bill will change the problems that we have all around the various parts of Tai Tokerau and the rest of the country. 
I was listening to the member for the West Coast - Tasman talking about infringement notices and about the ability of Department of Conservation personnel and councils to issue those infringement notices. There are so many highways byways and little nooks and crannies around the country that Department of Conservation workers and council workers will not be near. They will not go past them so this problem will not be addressed whatsoever. 
We have to make the differentiation between whether it is the camping that is the problem or whether it is the disposal of the waste. As Damien O’Connor said there are these self-contained campervans whose occupants dump their waste in all parts of the country. Those people may not have even stayed overnight but they wake up in the morning and find before they take the campervan back to the rental outfit that they have a full tank of waste that they have to get rid of or else they will be charged so they just dump it anywhere. I am not sure that this bill will change that outcome whatsoever. 
Minister Smith said that what we need are practical solutions and I wonder whether these practical solutions have been considered at all. One of the problems is the lack of camping grounds. Some campers turn up in a self-contained or even a non - self-contained camper vehicle and go into a camping ground but there is no space for them so they have to go somewhere else. In Nelson for example which I visited one night I went to a car park where by about 6.00 in the evening about 25 or 26 vehicles were parked up. The council had propped up a couple of Portaloos and a couple of rubbish bins for the waste. There is a problem and why should the residents of Nelson have to put up with those campervans and the people who if the Portaloos are full jump in the bushes to do their business? 
There are other options. I wonder whether these practical solutions have been thought through. There may not be camping grounds everywhere and there may not be waste disposal facilities everywhere but in most communities there are rugby clubs sports clubs schools and marae. They have car parks and flat ground. With a bit of thought and a bit of ingenuity such as local government entities working together with the tourism industry and schools sports clubs and marae there could be the potential to improve the facilities at those organisations. The septic tanks could be improved as could the ablution blocks and showers. I would say that a number of marae might quite possibly welcome the idea of getting funding from their local authority to improve their ablution blocks so that they could be improved for the people of the marae as well as for the tourism industry. They could quite possibly make a buck from it as well. So if we are talking practical solutions I wonder whether everything has been explored. I am not sure that it has. 
There is also the option or possibility that the people driving around in their campervans do not actually know where the next set of public facilities is. I wonder again whether there is enough information for tourists when they go to book or hire their vehicles. Do they have enough information to know that if they are in a particular place in the country it is 15 kilometres to the next public facility where they can dispose of their waste or go to the toilet? I think that a number of things really have not been totally thought through and that the $200 fine for infringement has been the solution for something that I think is a bit broader than just pinging people who happen to park their campervans in the main street of a town when they should not do that. 
There is also the idea in Labour’s minority report that we could phase out non - self-contained rental vehicles over a period of time. We were not saying they should be phased out in the next 5 minutes or even the next 5 years; we said that as the vehicles come to the end of their lifespan and have to be replaced they should be replaced by something that is self-contained. I thought that that was a sensible idea that should have been looked at as well. 
When we talk to the people in the tourism industry we hear them say that the infrastructure to support tourism in New Zealand is lacking. It goes back to what I said about local authorities buying in to the concept that tourism is so important to their local economies and that the tourism industry and local authorities should be working together to create facilities. If I am driving north I swear there is not a toilet north of Whangarei that I myself would really want to stop at. From Whangarei up to Cape Reinga is close to a 5-hour drive yet there is nothing really there in between except for an odd place— 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Kawakawa. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: Oh Kawakawa. Sorry I forgot my own home town with the Hundertwasser toilets. Oh gee whiz! This is about local government working for and valuing tourism and making sure that there are the facilities that campers can utilise. It is also unclear where the next service station is that has disposal facilities for the self-contained tanks of camping vehicles and I think that that needs to be highlighted as well in tourist information so that tourists do not have to drive 30 kilometres to dispose of their waste when there could be something a heck of a lot closer. 
This Government cut the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme and that is a shame. It gave a subsidy for small communities to put in place toilet facilities and dump stations but that scheme has gone and now there is no assistance at all. That is a shame because it could have mitigated this whole problem of the waste that is disposed of by people freedom camping. I do not think it is the camping itself that is the problem; I personally believe that it is the disposal of the waste. Kia ora. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that opinion will say Aye; to the contrary No. The Ayes have it. 
Gareth Hughes 
: The Noes have it. Party vote.