Govt dispatches quangos

Press, 11 August 1989, Page 4

Govt dispatches quangos

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington The hunting of the quango intensified yesterday, as the Government introduced legislation to dispatch almost 80 of the species in the conservation and huntin’, fishin’ area. The Conservation Law Reform Bill tidies up and streamlines the plethora of quasi-autonomous nonGovernment agencies in the Conservation area.

It abolishes such quangos as the National Parks and Reserves Authority, the National Parks and the Reserves Boards, the Nature Conservation Council, the Forest Park advisory committees, the Walkways Commission, and committees, the Marine Resrves Management Committees, and the National Recreational Hunting Advisory Committee.

That alone will account for more than 50 quangos, according to the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer. In the area of fish and game management, the bill will abolish another 26 quangos, including the

present 22 acclimatisation societies and two conservancy councils. The existing conservation quangos will be replaced by a New Zealand Conservation authority and up to 19 regional conservation boards. In the fish and game area, a national Fish and Game Council, and up to 12 regional fish and game councils will be set up. Over all, the bill would amount to about a halving of the number of quangos in this area, and is effectively a second stage of the restructuring of the conservation and environmental role of the Government and its agencies. The first stage occurred in 1987 when the various departments involved in conservation and environmental issues were reorganised and streamlined into the Ministry of the Environment and the Department of Conservation. Introducing the bill, the Minister of Conservation, Mr Woollaston, said that New Zealand had a unique system of protected area adminis-

tration, admired throughout the world.

“There has traditionally been a high degree of public participation in developing the goals and objectives for managing and using our parks and reserves. “The partnership between the community and the Government will be strengthened by this bill.” Mr Woollaston said that the bill would provide for the first time an integrated approach to management planning in all protected areas administered by the Department of Conservation. The bill also gives the Guardians of Lake Manapouri and Te Anau statutory recognition and provides for their appointment by the Minister of Conservation. Another feature of the bill is that it tidies up the law relating to marginal strips — the land beside lakes and rivers where these are surrounded by Crown-owned land. The new conservation authority and boards will retain the same powers as the present national park and reserves authority and boards.