Nash Stuart: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
Nash Stuart: Freedom Camping Bill — In Committee 
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STUART NASH (Labour) 
: 
 I will take only a short call on the Freedom Camping Bill. We are obviously not supporting it whatsoever. I was not too sure what the Maori Party were doing whether they were supporting it. There was a lot of verbosity there but not much understanding. 
I actually think this legislation will be decided in the courts. The reason I say that is there is a lot of ambiguity here around the meaning. In particular I would like to talk about clause 5 “Meaning of freedom camp”. If we go to subclause (1A) it says: “In this Act freedom camping does not include the following activities:”. It talks about temporary and short-term parking. When I am parking in the city I know what temporary and short-term parking means. But when in the great wilderness that is New Zealand what does that mean? If we say that temporary does not mean permanent does that mean one can park a car for 3 days? Is that temporary? It is certainly not permanent. There is not a permanent structure there the car is not in my garage; it is not in anything I own. By any account that is in fact temporary parking. Is it 1 day 2 days 3 days—a week even? That is certainly temporary parking when one is on holiday or doing a trek up and down the country. The other term is “short-term parking”. Again when in the city I think I know what short-term means but in terms of a 4-week summer holiday if one is driving from spot to spot does short-term mean 3 days 4 days? Does it mean 1 day? 
I think that a smart lawyer representing a client who wanted to make a point or a principle could drive a bus a campervan or a housetruck straight through the middle of this because I would suspect they could quite easily argue that they were not freedom camping under the meaning of the Act because they were temporary parking they were not permanent parking or they were short-term parking. Perhaps they were on a holiday for 6 months and during that term a 4-day stopover was considered as short-term in the scheme of things. The other thing if we go to subclause (1) is the meaning of freedom camping. It includes a tent or other temporary structure; a caravan; a car campervan housetruck or other motor vehicle. Well it is pretty obvious that this bill is being rushed through for the Rugby World Cup because this is what happens in the middle of winter; people stay in these things. But if I know many young people and I take myself as an example when I was a young man footloose and fancy-free during the holidays I would jump in the car grab a sleeping bag and sleep on a beach. 
Hon Member 
: When was that? 
STUART NASH 
: A long time ago sometime last century. I would grab a sleeping bag and sleep under the stars under a tree or on a beach. But according to this bill that is not freedom camping. But that is where a lot of the problem lies. As my honourable colleague Kelvin Davis said we need to address the issue of people defecating in the wilderness. But if one is sleeping in a sleeping bag under the stars on a beach for a 3-day period according to this bill one is not freedom camping. Again what is the definition of “temporary structure”? The Crown may argue that a sleeping bag is a temporary structure; I doubt it. I would say— 
Phil Twyford 
: What about the stars? 
STUART NASH 
: Are they temporary? Well they are in Christchurch at the moment because one cannot see the sky or the stars. It will be interesting to see who starts challenging this. Someone will I know that. It will go through the court. What will happen is that someone will be picked up after staying on a beach for 3 days with a group of mates in sleeping bags. They will have taken no care about where they do what they do and they will be picked up and fined an instant $200. One of them will be the son or the daughter of very wealthy person and they will say no. They will be a third-year law student and decide to test the case in court. This is classic legal systems 101. What defines freedom camping? The issue will be what the definitions of temporary and short-term parking are. Is temporary and short-term parking 1 hour half a day a full day 3 days or a week? Does a temporary structure mean a sleeping bag? Temporary structure is almost a bit of an oxymoron but I suppose it means a tent. The bill says “tent or other temporary structure” but a sleeping bag on a beach in a car for 3 days—according to the bill—is not freedom camping.