Monday, August 04, 2014



Giving away New Zealand

Another day, another massive overseas land sale of dubious benefit to New Zealand. Meanwhile, we've also learned that "our" government has been giving away parts of the conservation estate to foreigners:

3 News has discovered that Shanghai Pengxin, the controversial Chinese buyer of the massive Lochinver Station, was recently given conservation land by the Government, including parts of the Rakaia riverbed.

[...]

3 News has discovered in the Synlait sale the Government signed off conservation land to the Chinese company, including five hectares of the conservation estate known as "stewardship land" and seven hectares of the Rakaia riverbed.


Privatising government land is bad enough. Privatising the conservation estate, including a river (because that's what privatising a riverbed means) ought to be a crime. "Our" government is selling out New Zealand. We need to replace them with one which won't.