Govt dithering over land tenure review

The Government’s dithering over the release of its controversial plans for the South Island’s high country is causing further anxiety among farmers, says National’s Agriculture spokesman David Carter.

The office of the Minister for Land Information has just confirmed that the land tenure review discussion document is still a long way from completion.

This comes despite a promise in July that the report would be ready ‘shortly’.

Reports suggested the plans would be released by the end of last month. But now the Minister’s office says no decision has been made as to when it will be released.

“Labour’s veil of secrecy over this important issue has generated speculation that the Government plans to take even more land out of farmer’s hands,” says Mr Carter.

“This dodging and dithering is not good enough – the future of thousands of hectares of land, not to mention farmers’ income, is at stake and farmers deserve to know what is happening.

“But farmers are being locked out of the process while the Government continues to delay giving information on its plans.”

“The Government put farmers through months of uncertainty over public access and they are doing the same with land tenure. Farmers have had enough,” says Mr Carter.

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