King Colin: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
King Colin: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:16803] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is quite clear that debate on the Crown leases is very emotional. It is interesting that there are 230 leases. I have learnt a lot tonight from listening to various debaters. 
It is quite clear that we were in a situation in my view where there was a mess to be tidied up. The mess that was left was not addressed adequately by the Labour Government of the time. It is interesting to look at a comment in the  
Otago Daily Times 
 dated 10 October 2008 that states: “News this week of the historic property’s purchase came on the eve of Monday’s start of a two-week hearing by the Land Valuation Tribunal in Dunedin to consider an appeal over the way Land Information New Zealand sets rent on pastoral lease land.” That epitomises what happened to Minaret Station when it was taken to a hearing a tribunal as to the formula that was then in existence. 
As somebody who would not be so bold as to say he has been to as many stations as all the other learned speakers said but as somebody who enjoyed the hospitality and the convivial treatment of having shorn on some those stations mixed with some those people and picked up the vibes before I even came into Parliament I have to say how fragile the communities were. 
I want to speak about a community that I am reasonably familiar with up in the Awatere Valley where there are not what one would call any iconic views of Mount Cook or lakes or things like that but it does have quite a nice view of Mount Tapuaenuku which is the highest mountain in the inland Kaikoura Ranges at just under 10000 feet. It has a major problem with rabbits. It has a major problem with  
Hieracium 
 and it has a major problem with being able to pay rents that could potentially rise by 600 percent. 
I have heard the arguments put forward from the other side as to the inadequacy of farmers to address the Government in a man-to-man fashion—to use a term—but a lot of them were head down tail up trying to make ends meet. I appreciate that there will be exceptions to the rule but that is mainly brought about because as the point was made these are very very different times from those when the leases in perpetuity were struck back in the 1860s. Resources are scarcer today and there is much more claim held to those areas of land than there was in those earlier days. In actual fact if one lived in the Mackenzie country even when I began shearing back in the 1970s it was a bit of a joke— 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: In the Mackenzie? 
COLIN KING 
: Absolutely. If one was a merino farmer it was a bit of a joke. 
However times change and I take great courage and encouragement out of what the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment said about how we manage those very fragile properties notwithstanding the argument that people will privatise the gains and— 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Socialise the losses. 
COLIN KING 
: —socialise the losses. That is externalising the problems and there will be difficulties around it. 
However in saying all that I say that the Primary Production Committee will handle this diligently under the chairmanship of Shane Ardern. We will make sure that submissions are heard clearly and we will listen to the arguments of the Opposition. 
However it is very important to address the issue because under the Labour administration we ended up with 80 lessees having appealed the new rent levels. That in itself is not a reason to totally dismiss it. 
Debate interrupted.