Davis Kelvin: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
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KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 The Committee should be honoured to be listening to a descendant of the original freedom camper in New Zealand some 30-odd generations ago. My tupuna Kupe turned up and he was the first person according to legend to set foot in Aotearoa. He was the original freedom camper when he set up shop at his first campsite. But he did not actually form a permanent dwelling; he circumnavigated all of the North Island naming places on the way and therefore I claim him as the original freedom camper in Aotearoa. Here is his direct descendant standing up who follows his legacy because every Christmas my family and I also participate in freedom camping. 
According to clause 5 the meaning of freedom camp is to camp other than at a camping ground. We do not camp at a camping ground; we camp on private property. This is a slightly different circumstance. But it is within 200 metres of a motor vehicle accessible area. It is not near a great walking track. The only walking track at our camp is the great walk from the sleeping tent over to the food tent and back again. That is the great walk that I participate in when I am freedom camping. 
Stuart Nash 
: Many times. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: Many times in the one day. We are concerned about the potential for a blanket ban on freedom camping. I take up the point that our colleague Phil Twyford made about what constitutes a blanket ban. Is it 99 percent? Is it 98 percent? Is it 70 percent? There can be bans on huge swathes of local authority areas and they can still not be called or defined according to this bill as a blanket ban but in effect that is a blanket ban under clause 3(2A). 
The problem with this bill is that it does not address the problem. The problem is not that people pull up in their campervans or pitch a tent and camp; the problem is with the disposal of waste or effluent—call it what you may. That is the problem and that is the issue that should be addressed not the fact that people might pull up overnight and camp. We have heard from the previous Minister of Tourism the Hon Damien O’Connor and he would know that the term “FIT” in the tourism trade is “free and independent traveller”. We want to attract more free and independent travellers to New Zealand because generally they tend to be older people who like to not have any set schedule. They do not like to get on a bus and be taken from city A to city B to city C. They like to make up their plans as they go along the way. They like to pull over here and there and just camp where they can and when they can. That is what it means to be a free and independent traveller. 
These free and independent travellers tend to be wealthier. They bring more money and they tend to spend more money. We should be encouraging these people to come and have a great time enjoy themselves go where they want and when they want but respect the places they stay at just like my ancestor Kupe would have done back in his time. We need to encourage these people to stay and then go home and tell their friends and their families what a great time they had in Aotearoa New Zealand and encourage those people to also come over here and participate in the freedom camping experience. They tend to stay longer and they tend to spend more. We need to encourage those tourists not as the Hon Steve Chadwick referred to pop them here there and everywhere and get them as they are leaving the country. We should not say: “There you go. Here is a $200 fine because you were camping somewhere where a local authority said you shouldn’t.” 
There is the issue of not having enough places for freedom campers to stay at. I am talking about tourists; I am not talking necessarily about New Zealanders who want to go pig hunting surfing or whatever and end up camping just off the road before they go on their big adventure. I am talking about the tourists who are driving around. The camping grounds are normally full in the summer period or when we have something on such as the Rugby World Cup. There will be a lot of freedom campers at that time. 
I note the decision by this Government to do away with the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme which the Hon Maryan Street touched on.