27 Jul 2017

High country land sales 'illegal' - Environment Defence Society

From Nine To Noon, 9:32 am on 27 July 2017

The Environment Defence Society says the government is acting illegally in granting freehold ownership of land in the Mackenzie Basin to farmers. Land in the basin has historically been farmed on long term lease from the Crown. In 1998, a law was passed allowing Land Information New Zealand to review those leases and grant freehold land ownership rights to some of the land to leaseholders - with the rest of the land reverting to the ownership of the Department of Conservation. But EDS says LINZ has been failing to take environmental concerns into account with its decisions to grant freehold titles to land.