Environment talks bring acceptance

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 3

Environment talks bring acceptance

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Regional consultations in recent weeks have established a great deal of common ground on the issue of restructuring environmental administration, according to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Marshall. He said it was now widely accepted that the Government was not going to accept a solution which created further artificial distinctions between conservation and development.

Multiple-use philosophies would continue to underlie the management of all natural resources by the Crown. The Government had made it clear, and it was now accepted, that greater accountability in the com-

mercial activities of both the public and private sectors was basic to the whole approach, Mr Marshall said. The Government was not going to make any changes which led to job losses and, in fact, it expected to increase employment.

Decisions about the management regime for areas in dispute would be taken through the political process, he said, and not by public servants, quangos, or the judicial process. A coherence was yet to be achieved in the unified management of areas, under some form of protected status, and this was now accepted. Different regions of New Zealand might end up with different administrative arrangements, Mr Marshall

said. If the central mechanisms were fine-tuned then, in balance, this would present no great problem. Two areas of conflict were left that needed resolution:

First, should the cluster of conservation functions administered by Government agencies be set up as one separate department? Second, what system of laws and principles can be set up so that future tensions on the use of particular areas of land can be resolved?

He said the most important thing to emerge from the regional consultations was the need for the Government to give an early indication of the criteria it considered important when evaluating any particular proposal.