Chadwick Steve: Freedom Camping Bill — First Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Freedom Camping Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:673;Page:19276] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I have listened to the debate in the House and I recall that I had a glorious year as a Minister of Conservation. It is a pity that Nick Smith did not even mention that wonderful practical reign! However I am following on from a former Minister of Tourism the Hon Damien O’Connor who pointed out the very problems that we had to face when we were in Government but that this bill just does not fix. This bill is absurd. 
Following the example of the member from Taupo I ask members to picture this: new tourists arrive on the shores of Lake Taupo and do not have a clue where to find the toilets. There is no signage. There is no small subsidy scheme for Little Waihi to even build a decent ablution block next to a camping ground or at a pull-over on the side of the road. So what do the tourists do? They foul the side of the road. We see it and we are aware of this problem. But now they will be pinged with a $200 fine. Who will issue the fine? Will it be the local authority? Will it be a regional councillor? Will it be a front-line Department of Conservation ranger who instead of protecting species—now that $13 million is being knocked off the conservation budget every year—will have to issue fines? Who will be responsible for issuing the fine? Do members know what the tourists will say? They will say: “I am not going to pay it.” 
So we will set up an amazing bureaucracy through the Freedom Camping Bill to catch the pooper. Is it the dog or is it the person? Who will issue the fine? Is the fine for the dog or the person? And who will check that the fine has been paid when the tourists leave the airport? Will it be a customs officer or is it the airport’s responsibility to say: “This person was found soiling the road in Tekapo so must not leave the country until the $200 fine is paid.” This is a stupid bill. That is all. It is not practical and it is stupid. It is a nanny State response to the complex issue of the spoiling of our beautiful environment which we all care about. 
Freedom campers actually came to us when we were in Government too— 
Hon Member 
: You did nothing! 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: Hang on a minute! They proposed a solution with a mix of penalties for those who did not have ablution facilities in their campervans. They said there was a problem but that everyone was being pinged because some campers pay a premium to get a campervan that has a good ablution block in it. But is that going to stop the guy who has been drinking at night and goes into the bushes for a quick one? We have to think of the practicalities around this and this bill does not solve the problem we are all concerned about in respect of our clean green environment. 
There is another issue and I heard Damien O’Connor mention it too. It is ironic that the Government thinks this is the quick fix to environment protection when it has cut the very subsidy that allowed small communities to put in basic sanitation blocks and facilities wherever they saw the need along the countryside where freedom campers wanted to go. That subsidy scheme has gone—zip. I wonder whether the collection of the $200 fine proposed in this bill will go back into local authorities’ coffers through the department of tourism so that they can build decent ablution blocks and campervans can pull up and use those facilities. That was the sort of proposal and the solution we put in for other previous big events in this country. We put in more refuse collection and we started to build small ablution blocks. Members over there did not even know that scheme existed. I do not think that Government members even realised how good that scheme was. Local authorities loved it. Local authorities could make the decision about where these were to go. 
Jacqui Dean 
: What scheme? 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: The Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme. Ask Minister Tony Ryall. It was administered through the Ministry of Health and all of the funding has gone. 
The National Government has not even looked at some little tool box solutions that were there for the Government at the time. Clearly Minister Ryall has not talked to Minister Wilkinson who has not talked to the Minister for the Environment Nick Smith. Those measures that were already there are not even included in this bill. The nanny State National Government is just going to issue fines all over the country. It is not going to put up any signage. There is nothing in here about signage to say— 
Hon Member 
: Yes there is. 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: No there is not. There is no information for freedom campers at all about this law change. There should be information kits for new visitors to the country to say: “Welcome to New Zealand. Now you are going to find you get a $200 fine and we will take the apple that you bring in from Australia off you too. We will ping you for that. Welcome to New Zealand. Haere mai. Welcome to the Rugby World Cup. Have we got a quick-fix solution for you.” This is a band-aid solution. I hope that the Local Government and Environment Committee can flesh out the bill and that is why Labour will support its referral to the select committee. 
In some areas in Rotorua for example the provisions in this bill sort of meet what is being done anyway. We have something called a Rotorua open public place policy and in that policy we promulgate by-laws and encourage people in freedom camping situations to go to a place where there is a toilet and ablution facility. 
This bill is just silly. It is not a bill that will give us a great reputation as a country of liberal thinkers. People love the environment and people want to come here. It is a nanny State bill. It is a stupid solution—again because of the Rugby World Cup. I think the Minister could have done much better than this. There could have been a mix of fines and a mix of the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme and it could have been promulgated. We could look at where the fine could go instead of just into the Government coffers as another revenue back-door facility. For goodness’ sake! Who will be policing this? Who will monitor this? If it is to be front-line Department of Conservation rangers then I think that is an appalling waste of conservation money. 
There was a whole mix and suite of solutions to what looks to be a very overt problem that causes environmental degradation. I hate this bill being called the Freedom Camping Bill. To me it is more like the “Freedom Camping is Dead in New Zealand Bill” or the “We’re Going to Tell You Where to Go Bill”. As Damien O’Connor said we could have come up with an environment protection bill and looked at this whole problem of degradation and contamination of public sites in a much more comprehensive manner that fitted our clean green environment.