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Former Green MP and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage joins Melanie for a deep dive into the Government’s sweeping proposals to “modernise conservation land management” — reforms she believes will dismantle decades of hard-won protections for our public estate.

Framed as streamlining, efficiency, and “unlocking” economic opportunities, the changes would shift DOC’s focus from preservation to enabling economic activity, making it far easier for businesses, infrastructure projects, and tourism ventures to gain access to public conservation land. Decision-making powers currently held by the New Zealand Conservation Authority and conservation boards would be stripped away and centralised with the Minister. The robust statutory safeguards of the General Policy for National Parks and the General Policy for Conservation would be replaced by a single, more generic National Conservation Policy Statement.

Eugenie warns that the proposals go well beyond efficiency tweaks. They open the door to large-scale disposal or exchange of land — including areas deemed “surplus to conservation requirements” or reallocated “to support other government priorities” — potentially covering around 5 million hectares of the estate. Amenity areas could be expanded into development nodes. Concessions could be pre-approved by class, bypassing case-by-case scrutiny and ignoring cumulative impacts. Public participation processes would be curtailed, weakening community voices.

In this conversation, we unpack what these reforms mean for biodiversity, Treaty obligations, climate resilience, DOC’s culture and resourcing, and New Zealand’s international reputation. We explore how these changes intersect with the Government’s fast-track approvals regime and wider deregulatory agenda — and why Eugenie sees them as the most serious weakening of conservation law in decades.

Resources

DOC’s news release on Unleashing growth on conservation land

Factsheet on Modernising Conservation Land Management

Cabinet paper on Modernising Conservation Land Management

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