Suzanne Williams

As this is an area of politics dear to my heart, I was impressed with the letter from Chris Mulcahy in last Friday’s Beacon on the Conservation Amendment Bill just gone to the Select Committee.

I believe that, although there has been some softening of the provisions of the bill, it needs to be scrapped; we cannot afford to lose any more of our beautiful native bush conservation lands.

Around 33 percent of our country is in bush and shrubland, reduced from 80 percent before human habitation.

Most of this is mountainous and inaccessible, but those who have walked our beautiful tracks will certainly agree that we have a unique resource here, needed more than ever now with our increasing mental fragility; it is also a tourist magnet.

Having said that, there is one provision in the bill that I agree with; I worked on this in 2009.

At that time, my husband and I took a whistle-stop tour of the western United States and Canada, visiting and walking 13 US national parks.

What a marvellous tour; made so much more enjoyable by the efficiency of the Park Service Rangers, covering every national park; and of the purchase of their annual pass, which then cost us eighty dollars (now $250) and allowed visits to all national and state parks for a year.

When I got home, I contacted our local MP, John Carter, with a strong suggestion that our government of the day institute a similar scheme for New Zealand, to a lesser degree, of course, but charging overseas visitors for access to the parks, the funds to go to the Conservation Department, as they have always suffered from under-funding.

He was fully in agreement, and wrote to the minister with my proposal, which she turned down flat, because we were too small a country to provide the manpower, upon which I suggested voluntary contributions on the tracks.

However, this is the only part of the bill with which I can agree.

Is this the thin end of the wedge?

Do we stand idly by while our unique heritage shrinks more and more in pursuit of the almighty dollar and conservation land is no longer conserved?