Mooney Joseph; Mallard TrevorJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise as the member of Parliament for Southland to oppose the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill at this third reading. National opposes the bill in its entirety. It is our view that the provisions contained in this bill fundamentally change the approximately 73 year-old unique contractual relationship between the Crown pastoral leaseholders and the Crown through Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). This is becoming a pattern for this Government. It is undermining confidence in the farming sector. It is undermining confidence in property law rights. There are currently 171 Crown pastoral leases covering around 1.2 million hectares of the South Island. The majority are located across Canterbury Otago Marlborough Southland and Westland. The leases are located in the South Island high country.In my electorate of Southland I have high country stations in northern Southland Glenorchy Queenstown Lakes District and Central Otago. They are all different. One size does not fit all and this is an example of an unworkable piece of legislation that the Government is becoming known for in rural New Zealand. This proposed reform of the law overseeing South Island high country pastoral leases will not lead to better environmental outcomes.New Zealand has a proud farming history and the farmers of the alpine regions of the South Island occupy a special place in New Zealand's heritage. These beautiful alpine lands known as the high country are a unique landscape of expansive grassland plains river valleys and mountains. The land is generally prone to climatic extremes of hot dry summers and winters that bring heavy snowfalls. It takes a special kind of person to live and make this their home and it's our high country farmers—approximately 150 to 160 families—that protect these regions for all of New Zealand.The high country is typically a much more extreme environment than the general farmland of wider New Zealand. The land is diverse it's remote and it's challenging. Many aspects of the high country are not tameable because of the scale topography altitude and weather realities that all frustrate domestication. A management style has arisen within the high country that adopts strategies for dealing with snow and droughts and that has an overall attitude of resilience.High country farmers are very aware that a balance must be maintained with the landscape and the biodiversity of the landscape to ensure the survival of ecosystems and to produce high-quality stock. There is a need to ensure adaptability and diversification of current farming practices in response to changing climatic conditions markets and consumer demands. Through living and working in the high country farming families have developed a deep attachment and sense a belonging to the land that often stretches across many generations. The unique culture and senses of identity of high country farmers is derived from that deep attachment to the land. Within the high country there's almost a spiritual affinity with the land the mountains the rivers and the lakes. High country farmers' attachment to the land is both physical material conceptual and emotional and it is certainly something that I and other members saw when we visited many high country farms and farmers. We saw the deep emotional connection that they had to this and the genuine emotional difficulty that this bill was posing to them. Some in fact were almost in tears discussing this.The Crown pastoral lease lands at the heart of the process have been leased from the Government and used for grazing by farmers since the mid - 19th century. Prior to the 1948 Land Act there was a deterioration in the lands—a tragedy of the commons in effect—as leaseholders had not been provided with sufficient security of tenure to justify their continued investment in the long-term infrastructure and environmental management required. Rabbits feral pigs goats deer and weed plants such as gorse had become an issue and it was acknowledged that a long-term solution was needed.I note that the Crown purchased the high country from Ngāi Tahu in the 1840s and 1850s in the time of early European settlement. By the time of purchase extensive deforestation had already occurred due to earlier fires and with the exception of high-altitude tussock areas the vast majority of the land remained impenetrable and unsuitable for even minimal pastoralism. Some hardy folk made this their home and worked the land but over a period of time it became clear that the existing framework did not work effectively and there was in effect a race to the bottom as a number of farmers sought to exploit the land in effect. This led to some serious environmental problems that the Governments of the day recognised and it led to the Land Act of 1948 some 73 years ago that formed this contractual relationship that is being changed today by this Government.The Land Act 1948 brought about significant change to the management of Crown land. It abolished the distinctions between different land classifications and reduced the number of tenures in which Crown land could be held from approximately 40 to four standard tenures—namely freehold renewable lease pastoral occupation licence and pastoral lease. This effectively gave leaseholders a degree of certainty of tenure and therefore the incentive to invest in the future protection of the land and this is exactly what has happened over generations. Families have invested in the land and they have improved the environmental outcomes very significantly. In fact if I turn to one station in my electorate across the Wakatipu lake Mount Nicholas Station has over 160 years of farming history but only 16 percent of that land has introduced pasture and regular fertiliser applications—83.9 percent of the station is in indigenous vegetation. This is actually quite common among many high country stations in fact across the South Island. A lot of the land cannot be farmed and in fact it must be conserved and protected. As farmers have this deep connect where they remove the exotic plants they remove the noxious animals and they're motivated to do so because they have that security of tenure and that incentive to invest.A submitter who made a powerful impression on members of the Environment Committee last year in Queenstown was a young 11-year-old Jess Cocks from Mount Nicholas Station who really highlighted the multigenerational connection to the land. She spoke of how much she loved it and loved going camping on it and talked about going spraying with dad to kill bad weeds like gorse and nodding thistles and catching possums to help look after our native birds and forests. She said One day I really hope to be able to run this farm and I hope that it stays in family for ever so we can keep looking after this beautiful station." Her mum Kate Cocks also articulated how deeply committed she was to providing environmental protection and I think the statistics speak for themselves: 83.9 percent of that station is in indigenous vegetation.I also visited Muller Station up in the Marlborough region and saw the work that's been done there over many many years since 1965 and there are no noxious plants to be seen. Molesworth Station which is Crown-owned and Crown-managed next door has some different conditions but nevertheless has a serious wilding pine problem.An issue that was raised by a number of submitters—and unfortunately we heard last night from the Minister for Land Information that he wasn't aware of it but it was certainly in submissions to the select committee and was raised numerous times—was the requirement that farmers will need a consent unless 90 percent or more of the land area is covered in exotic pest plants to remove those plants and I'll show a photograph to the House of one those submissions. There's a photograph of tussock area and one gorse bush in the middle of it and that will effectively be protected by this legislation. It's just an example of unworkable regulation that unfortunately this Government does time and time again and it does not listen to those who know their land best and how to protect it best. I also note that there has not been a real effort by the Government to proactively work with leaseholders and they've instead chosen to ram this bill through the House. We heard from the Minister that farmers were going to welcome lots more visits from the Crown agents. That was in direct contradiction to the submissions from Federated Farmers and High Country Accord who said that given the nature of the penalty regime in this bill they will look upon a visit from the Crown agents as effectively mounting to a visit from the police. That is not something that most people welcome when they are doing their very best to protect the land for their families and for the environment and for New Zealand.By setting up an adversarial system of management with rigid rules and complex processes which will increase costs for high country farmers this bill undermines the security of tenure granted by the Land Act 1948 some 73 years ago in the pastoral lease tenure and it will consequently undermine the incentives for enhanced stewardship of the land which that security of tenure has delivered over the past 73 years. There has been no real consideration by this Government that leaseholders who are often multigenerational guardians of the land might be better than the Department of Conservation or LINZ something that anyone who has visited these properties—as I have—would know to be true.I will speak to two other stations that I visited. Branch Creek Station is in the Cardrona Valley and a mother and daughter who have done an incredible job—SPEAKER: Order! The member has run out of time."