Cost-cutting may bring merger of departments

Press, 11 June 1982, Page 3

Cost-cutting may bring merger of departments

Parliamentary reporter The merger of three Government departments into one is being considered by the Government. Also being considered is the merger , of six quangos (quasi-autonom-ous non-government organisations). These changes would be part of the proposed 3 per cent cut in Government expenditure, if finally adopted. The three departments are Lands and Survey, the Forest Service, and the Wildlife Service. The new department w’ould include nearly all the present Lands and Survey, all the Wildlife Service, and parts of the Forest Service, notably the Environmental Forestry Division. The rest of the Forest Service may go into a forestry corporation or commission. This has already been recommended by a Government caucus committee. .It is believed that discussions have already been held with the Fletcher and Tasman milling enterprises over how a Forestry Corporation might function, and how its work might dovetail with the private enterprise concerns.

The new- department may also include responsibility for freshwater fisheries, which is now administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, but is being sought by the Wildlife Service. The new department would therefore combine most of the Government’s functions for environmental, forestry, reserve land, Crown land, and wildlife matters. The new quango would undertake work done by the Commission for the Environment, the Environmental Council, the Nature Conservation Council, the Queen Elizabeth II Trust, the Landscape Commission and, possibly, the Historic Places Trust, As such, it would meet the general recommendations of the O.E.C.D. reports into conservation in New Zealand, and also the National Conservation strategy launched by the Government last year. Some of the quangos have legislation and some do not. The widest piece of legislation under which they could gather is the Nature Conservation Act, 1962. In the interim, this is being looked at as the parent legislation.