Twyford Phil: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
Twyford Phil: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:675;Page:20667] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 I will pick up where my colleague Kelvin Davis left off and make some comments about the second clause in Part 2 which is about the bylaw-making power of local authorities. To borrow the turn of phrase from Stuart Nash I think it was we could drive a housetruck through the wording in some of these clauses. Subclause (2) of clause 11 says that “A local authority may make a bylaw under subsection (1) only if it is satisfied that—(a) the bylaw is necessary … (i) to protect the area:”—to protect the area. I mean that is ridiculous. That is so wide-ranging and so lacking in any kind of concrete meaning or specificity that it just makes a complete mockery of the bill. A council can make a by-law if it is satisfied that this bill is necessary to protect the area. Well what is it protecting the area against—or whom? It is an absolute nonsense. 
Paragraph (b) of clause 11(2) states: “the bylaw is the most appropriate and proportionate way …”. Well there is an irony right there that this entire bill is disproportionate. That is the problem with it. It criminalises a whole class of people and a whole class of activity unnecessarily when it could actually be focusing on the problem—that is people who dump waste in scenic places. The by-law is supposed to be the most appropriate and proportionate way of addressing the perceived problem—but perceived by whom? If there is a perception that there is a problem a council can pass a by-law to outlaw freedom camping across all but 100 percent of its territory. The legislation is absolutely ridiculous. It is heavy-handed and it is punitive. So if there is a perceived problem and a council thinks it needs to protect an area then that is justification enough under this bill for the council to pass a by-law that will outlaw freedom camping; a freedom that generations of New Zealanders have enjoyed will be able to be outlawed across large swathes of territory. 
Louise Upston 
: It doesn’t outlaw it Phil. Do you remember the bill? 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: Louise Upston has occasionally opened her mouth in this debate. She refuses to get up and take a call. I do not know why. She sits there on the backbenches on the Government side saying “Read the bill. Read the bill!”. Well I know from the select committee discussions that Louise Upston had grave concerns about this bill as did Cam Calder. They had serious concerns that this bill is punitive and heavy-handed and that it threatens the freedom of New Zealanders to enjoy the great outdoors. I challenge Louise Upston to get up and take a call. At least the Minister in the chair the Minister of Conservation had the good grace to get up and engage in a little bit of debate and I thank her for that. But to be honest I was mystified because all the Minister did was repeat what is already in the bill supposedly to avoid doubt and that was the statement that this bill does not allow blanket bans. Well we have already asked the Minister what percentage of a ban is acceptable. Is 98 percent OK? Is 95 percent OK? 
Hon Rick Barker 
: 99? 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: Maybe 99 percent is if there is a perceived problem that needs to be remedied by the council. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: What about freedom camping in a council car-park? That might be it. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: I thank Rick Barker; that is a very good suggestion. 
The Minister also said that the bill specifically protects freedom camping unless it is outlawed. But that is a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland logic: if one says that it is so then it must be so. Well it is not. The status quo makes it quite difficult for councils to outlaw freedom camping across large areas of land. It does. It makes it quite difficult for them to do that and it is not easy for them to enforce it. But with this bill Minister Wilkinson is not as she said handing councils one small tool in a tool box. She is giving them a powerful and efficient tool to outlaw freedom camping across large swathes of New Zealand and to enforce that ban in a heavy-handed way with $200 instant fines for people who happen to find themselves parked up and sleeping overnight in a prohibited area. What punitive bureaucratic and authoritarian streak lies at the heart of the National Government that it thinks it is OK to deal with this problem this specific problem of people dumping waste in some of our country’s scenic areas by imposing this heavy-handed regime? It is way beyond what any normal person would consider to be a proportionate response to this problem. It threatens a fundamental freedom that New Zealanders have enjoyed for a very long time. 
Louise Upston 
: It actually makes it more pleasant. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: All I can assume from that outburst from Louise Upston is that she has never gone away for a weekend surfing tramping or hunting and has never slept on the side of the road or pitched a tent in some beautiful part of New Zealand as she has gone off climbing mountains tramping or fishing. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Five-star hotels in Europe. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: That is right. It must be that she stays in five-star hotels and that she does not give a damn for the thousands and thousands of New Zealanders who spend their retirement travelling around this beautiful nation of ours in self-contained campervans enjoying the great outdoors in this country and who are fearful that this bureaucratic and punitive law will crack down on their freedom to enjoy New Zealand. 
I know that Cam Calder is a man of the world. He has travelled around. I bet he has slept on beaches. He has probably slept under hedgerows has Cam Calder. He does not like this bill but why will he not get up and take a call? Why will he not get up and take a call and explain why he is voting for this heavy-handed bureaucratic legislation?