National Party wants to sell / exchange up to 67% of NZ’s conservation lands
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3:50 pm, August 8th, 2025 - 42 comments
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The most important points in this article are as follows –
- National want to open up ~2/31 of our entire conservation estate for sale / commercialisation and exchange.
- And, at the same time they are in the process of eliminating substantive protections from foreigners2 and corporations snapping up our land and assets3
- The Regulatory Standards Bill will also offer considerable protections to all “property owners” – foreign and domestic – requiring potential compensation should anyone interfere with their absolute property “freedom and rights”.4
What is the cumulative impact here?
Picture this:
American Billionaire A, using a shell company, comes in and swoops up a few thousand hectares of conservation land. And because of the Regulatory Standards Bill he can in practice do whatever he wants. He buys a few new homes; and creates some experimental labs. Vistas become blocked and kiwi birds are killed, but the RSB will protect him, and the Courts and environmental protection is effectively defanged by now. American Billionaire A starts getting involved in NZ affairs because politics determines outcomes – he has experience there.
Billionaire B from Saudia Arabia finishes a structure that the NZ Courts once stopped, and as the Regulatory Standards Bill is retroactive, he now has grounds to sue New Zealand. He expands his property outwards – the conservation land behind is now up for grabs and he expands a new build up and out to magnificent heights. He also builds helicopter pads. Locals are helpless to stop it, and they feel their way of life changed in front of their eyes.
Corporate C wants to open a new fast food restaurant in a picturesque NZ town. Activist citizens previously rallied against it. Times have changed. The corporate now buys land on the lake, previously classified as conservation estate. They clear it for development – there are rumoured to be skinks and other endangered, native wildlife, but that is no concern. It is unprotected by law and the Regulatory Standards Bill will ensure any attempt to stop them will mean significant financial penalties on the local councils and individuals. The new restaurant opens to great fanfare and tourism dollars. Most of those profits will go back overseas. Billionaire A is one of the investors. He smiles.
5 million hectares of conservation land – the vast majority classified as “high ecological value” – up for commercialisation under the National Party
Perhaps what is most interesting about this story is how few media outlets have highlighted it.
There is still time, though, and RNZ covered it first.5
Forest and Bird have been working tirelessly to raise the alarm.6
Public Conservation Land (PCL) is a third of New Zealand’s total land area. It not only contains a large proportion of our important ecosystems, it includes 75 percent of total indigenous forestry and offers significant biodiversity, cultural and economic benefits7
It’s worth noting at this point that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, submitted on this proposal earlier in the year –
Source: Parliament NZ
Transcript:
“This proposal would represent a major change to New Zealand conservation law.
Were it to go ahead, it would make around 5 million hectares of public conservation land – almost two thirds of the conservation estate – available for exchange and disposal.
Many different types of conservation land would potentially be affected.
Everything from local reserves covering one hundred hectares to conservation parks covering one hundred thousand hectares.
The vast majority of this land is of high ecological value.
For a proposal with such wide-reaching consequences, it is striking how vague the consultation document is about what the Government is trying to achieve….”
Upton also suggests the government may be aiming to dispose of conservation land to save on DOC budget and says:
“…The idea that we are protecting ‘too much’ of certain ecosystems is not one I have heard before.”
Full submission document: Link – February 2025
What does Nicola Toki, Forest and Bird CEO, say?
“The scale and speed of [sneaky] regulatory reforms [harming nature under this government], is so fast and massive that no New Zealander can keep up.. it’s like drinking Coke from a fire hose just trying to keep on top of all that reform.”
…. the cumulative impact of death by 1000 cuts.”8
“They’re making .. 5 million hectares of conservation land, easier to swap or sell off and weakening the importance of conservation in decision-making.
That’s not saving nature in these special places.”
“We have a proud history and legacy of protecting public conservation land that belongs to all of us today, and the future generations tomorrow.”
“Now is the time to protect and restore, not to weaken what remains.”9
“The rolling back of environmental protections that we’ve seen in the last 18 months is like nothing I’ve seen in my 20 plus year career. And this one is probably the final insult…”
Like all things that the National Party touch, it’s not that there isn’t merit in reform or changes, but if the last 18 months has taught us anything, it’s that the party’s real goals consistently fail to match up to the public interest test, evidence based expertise, and democracy.
As Toki states clearly: the government has no mandate from the NZ public here.
Nor do their multiple rushed processes, law changes, and low levels of transparency & information, aid the NZ people to truly dissect and understand what is at stake.
We truly are in unprecedented and dangerous times.
Note: The government is currently writing the Conservation Acts (Land Management) Amendment Bill, and say they expect it to table it by year end 2025.
Kiwis are tired, and according to Susie, only about 300010 people submitted on the significant Overseas Amendment Bill.
That may be the point.
Toki expresses it well – “It feels like guzzling…from a fire hose.” They can’t keep up.
Besides, isn’t this “we have to do this because of growth” narrative getting old?
The only growth this country has seen under National is record unemployment, record business failures, record jobseekers, record homelessness, and record levels of perceived corruption.
NZ Mining lobbies for mining on conservation lands.
Source: Minerals Council of NZ
Shane Jones hinted at lower royalties11 for the sector in the May budget but that has not yet eventuated.
Jones and Chris Bishop did start this term by declaring mining on conservation lands would take place regardless.
Note: There’s a huge question mark in terms of tourism, and the value of “Pure, Clean New Zealand” – even as this pro-fossil fuel government advances its agenda.
Food for thought.
This excerpt is reposted from Mountain Tui Substack
This government makes me sick. I hate them. Conservation land has been put aside for future generations. Do they not understand what the word conservation even means?
Do they know what word conservation means?
No, and they don't care.
I'm sure many of us do not realize how much the ground has shifted under our feet.
These arseholes have smashed so much so much of how we navigated the challenges facing Aotearoa NZ. The various factions didn't get everything they wanted but there was compromise and we moved forward even if it wasn't fast enough. But that's finished.
I don't want to hear anything about "cross-party" or "non-partisan" anymore. These c*nts have shit all over that.
Unless more people wake up and fight back we're fucked.
Yup I saw some more dots line up yesterday.
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-07-08-2025/#comment-2040798
Allowing landowners to deny access to conservation land and the coast, so the customary rights of all of us are removed.
The OIO (selling off coastal, lakeside and riverside land), RSA (RSB)(let corporations reign) and carving off of conservation land for private possession and or business purpose.
PS To be read alongside plans to make transient (rental) residents less able to be enrolled to vote.
This government reminds one of the enclosure of the public commons – building of the property owning voting class Tory establishment in the House of Commons the 16th C.
Does there attack on the foreshore and seabed bill tie into this ?
Yes.
It is all about rights to access to ownership and or control of land (exclusive private or corporate use) and the exclusion (or limitation) of public regulatory restriction.
If they exclude Maori customary rights then foreigners who buy in to scare coastal land ownership will have the control they are use to and will pay high price for.
Trying to turn nz in to a US state in one term
No more veiled threats. It must be obvious by now to even the apaths, that NZ Conservation is under attack. The NACT1 war on our NZ Environment will be a multi-front blitzkrieg !
This from the main POS Shame Jones …as he self describes.
I have been following this (obviously) And I note how the language of Bathurst has ramped up..
Now its…
Those protesting are IMO brave people. I have great respect for them, and needless to say, none for Shame Jones, Bathurst, or indeed NACT1 ….
Time to stand up for what can't..our NZ Conservation areas !
Typical Tories stealing public resources and enclosing them for private profit.
I don't know if Aotearoa will survive another 18 months of this shit.
This will need serious and huge protesting,
"Our people are really pissed off. It's costing them money." That's what it's all about, money.
But our public assets are priceless.
What it needs is labour to come out strong an say that it will repeal and reclaim any land taken, at the new owners expense
Looking deeper into the dark of the mine, as it were, unsurprising to see Atlas' Network minions touch of death (well, touch of death to anything good that is)
As a proud long term Forest and Bird member I'm looking forward to protesting in my area.
Destination Queenstown is very vulnerable to the effects of this massive policy change.
It goes totally against every part of our tourism industry's branding and value proposition if taken to its full extent. Although some liberalisation around concessions and possible purchase of DOC land / assets would be looked on very favourably by even some of the 'greenest' industry players.
Destinatino Queenstown and similarly Wanaka are driven by a deliberate strategy of "regenerative tourism".
Home | Regenerative Tourism NZ
All parts of the value proposition that they propose and promote are driven by this.
Stories & Inspiration | Queenstown, NZ
They are pretty clear from those I talk to that neither Willis nor Luxon understand how this has driven the success of the Queenstown Lakes region for quite some time.
Thank you Mountain Tui for this information and explaination.
This is such a huge 180deg change, and none of this was in their electioneering. They have no mandate except from their donors and beneficiaries.
Small isolated protests in home areas will not do a thing. We need a Hikoi the like of which will shift the dial.
All interested parties need a focal point.
Forest and Bird, Sea bed and Foreshore, Regenerative farming, Organic foods, are all part of this conservation and circular regenerative economy and even democracy itself that is under threat.
It is the world of extraction against the world of conservation.
Start sending to publications that we demand to know what information they have published on this?
Those who are able lampoon these people. Cartoons get the message across.
Sorted investors may have to wait a little longer for "the most precious parts" of public conservation land to be made disposable, but we all see what is precious to the CoC.
Imho, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, put it well in the "Proposed changes to the framework for exchanging and disposing of public conservation land" section of his 28 Feb 2025 submission [p10]:
And the Commissioner's recommendation [at the bottom of page 11]?
PM Key backed down on National's plan to mine in conservation land, but the CoC leaders are too greedy and pig-headed for that – they are speed-wrecking our country.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23007589 [30 April 2010]
I followed the links and all I found was this,
https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2025-media-releases/unleashing-growth-on-conservation-land/ (quote from PDF linked at bottom of page)
Is that all they've said?
I'm devastated to read actual reports above of ministers ' comments re conservation land and add in particular to weka's bullet points at 9 :
to my mind these proposals are the most dastardly in recency, and that's saying something!
* Surely no exchange of land could make sense from a conservation perspective.
* "Tests referred to in 'subject to tests etc' seem to me worded to enable what I fear would be decidedly subjective tests with results to suit further predation of our beautiful land.
Urgent rejection must be on massive scale.
I had the same kind of immediate response!
We do have precedence with land tenure processes, where farmers were given land in exchange for DOC getting the bits they really wanted out of farming. Which was controversial enough.
But outright selling? The lack if information is hugely concerning.
Having worked in DOC for some 15 years from its establishment until my early retirement I am aware that some "stewardship land" (effectively a holding category only) does have little conservation value. Unfortunately there has been very little work done in most areas in assessing its true conservation or historical values and reclassifying it accordingly. https://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-role/managing-conservation/stewardship-land/ Little was done in this respect from 1987 until the 2020s when a start was made in Westland and northern South Island.
This report from the Federated Mountain Clubs gives a good outline as to what has happened up until Potaka's latest announcement. https://fmc.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/stewardship-land/
While the government has said that ".. disposals when it is good for overall conservation management, subject to tests to protect conservation values and other factors such as cultural and historic significance and public access" can they be trusted? I certainly don't!
While you were at DOC, what did you think of the Federated Mountain Clubs proposal for a Remarkables National Park?
https://fmc.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/remarkables/#:~:text=The%20proposed%20National%20Park%20links,secrets%20of%20this%20place%20revealed.
Personally I loved the idea of a tussock-dominant system because it's where so many of our moths like to hang out.
I wasn't with DOC then but I've supported the idea of a national park or conservation park in that area since long before that!
I don't trust them either.
Does the 60% figure seem surprising to you?
No, given that it includes everthing other than national parks and nature reserves. Unfortunately it seems that Conservation Parks (about one step down from national parks in importance) are not exempted like them.
We probably will need a hiko at least as big as the Te Tiriti one if we are going have any chance of getting the message through to them, especially those who would most likely lose their seats on the basis of current polling figures.
is it possible to see a list of the areas?
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=fb48568bd1624551be2a40c37a9b456d
ta. There is a lot of land there that would easily be worth keeping with DOC, including large amounts bordering National Parks.
Have you seen any detail from National beyond the press releases?
There certainly is a lot of land that needs keeping and reclassifying of its status!
No I haven't seen or heard anything apart from the press releases.
Oops, "hikoi".
As per Nicola Toki comment “The rolling back of environmental protections that we’ve seen in the last 18 months is like nothing I’ve seen in my 20 plus year career. And this one is probably the final insult…”
Absolute shocker it feels as a complete assault on anyone personally who stood for the protection of our last remaining green spaces. All ideological driven.
It also shows again how weak our laws are, such that any government/MP can change anything they like at will, in my opinion.
how weak our one person one vote democracy is too.
It's is all connected – renunciation of UNDRIP, Treaty of Waitangi out of legislation, Treaty of Waitangi Principles, Regulatory Standards (let the corporation have its way), OIO regime changes (open to foreign buy up and weakening of environmental protection) to the commercialising of the conservation estate.
The theme is made clear here via the link to Newsroom here.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09-08-25/#comment-2040946
A Bill to amend the Public Service Act 2020 comment to remove this from that legislation.
“supports the Government to pursue the long-term public interest”.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/01/whoops-how-not-to-build-an-efficient-and-effective-public-service/
https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/opinion/cartoon/second-opinion
Healthcare, conservation land, infrastructure = opportunties for profit.
All politicians end up in the rubbish bin of history. Unfortunately they will do a lot of damage while they are in power.
The attitude of Shane Jones and his mates brings to mind this from Measure for Measure:
“But man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape"
We have to win on this one, otherwise the conservation lands we now enjoy will be gone forever.
Why we must fight this. (there are so many…but this is a previous history of fucking Bathurst ) And kudos Newsroom, Fox Meyer at al, again !
Note the NZ Taxpayer paying for it….
The
greencoal washing..Dr Mike Joy has another look at…(as an Environmental Expert)
Final words to Dr Mike Joy. Someone whose Expert Environmental Knowledge is invaluable, IMO, crucial to our saving of NZ's Environment !
Also a very good Charlie Mitchell Stuff article, with a 2nd header that is core to all this….
“Along a ridge on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand had a choice between money and environment. It chose money.”
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2018/10/what-happened-here/
There's a straight forward of dealing with this abomination. The Labour opposition needs to grow a pair & announce that anyone given a commercial concession on any part of the conservation estate will have it cancelled, without compensation, by the next Labour government. So firstly, the incoming Labour government scraps Seymour's shitty Regulatory Standards act with its compensation clauses & then the commercial concession is re-nationalised without compensation.
This would stop National's apalling proposals even getting off the ground.
The issue isn't concessions. That's another whole can of worms where both Labour and National governments have used the conservation estate for income.
The issue is National want to sell off conservation land. Once it passes into private hands it will very hard to get it back. I can't see Labour saying they will reverse land sales, that's election losing stuff.
There is also an issue of National expanding concessions.
What is needed here is a mass public rejection of the various proposals. On the streets kind of protest.
make it an issue that loses National voters.
Agreed; the NZ public needs to tell the politicians that selling conservation land is not on.
I can guess the government response – it is only "surplus" conservation land that will be sold off.
And who decides what is "surplus" land? Why a bunch of pre-programmed robots, of course, acting in accordance with ministerial wishes. That will give the whole process a thin veneer of respectability.
Not all concessions are undesirable (eg conservation and natural history oriented ones and small-scale short walk guiding ones such as Trips ‘n Tramps in Te Anau). The bureaucratic and time consuming process needed to get one approved has been an issue from the early days of DOC and is certainly overdue for a serious review.
The types of concessions that we don't need are those in respect of extractive industries, land use conversion, road extensions (eg the Hollyford Road through to Haast), commercial developments such as gondolas in prime scenic or conservation areas, and more mass tourism operations.
Weka, the solution for dealing with land sales is the same – Labour in opposition announces that anyone who buys conservation land will have it bought back by the government at the lower of cost price or the current market value.The method of payment will be the government issuing the seller with government stock with a range of maturity dates, money won't change hands. If people buy conservation land knowing Labour's policy, they can't complain about subsequent re-nationalisation of the land.
If Labour presents this as a way of keeping the conservation estate in public ownership & only a handful of private, (probably foreign) owners are inconvenienced, who cares? Labour needs some fire in its belly & to make this a crusade about economic & environmental sovereignty. This framing will gain, not lose votes.
Well even Curia says all parties on the right are down. Let that trend continue.
They then predict at this juncture a hung parliament. lol