Govt vows to heal pastoral lessees rift

The Government is promising to heal what it sees as a dysfunctional relationship with high country pastoral lessees writes the ODT. Lands Minister Richard Worth said the relationship between lessees and the previous government had collapsed, with farmers feeling there was no trust between the government as landlord and the lessee. Mr Worth said in an interview he was committed to a relationship based on three policy planks his party campaigned on at the last election: voluntary, good-faith negotiations between runholders and the Government; ensuring rentals were tied to the earning capacity of the property; and recognition that runholders could be as effective land stewards as the Crown. Pastoral lessees have said privately they have noticed a different Government attitude recently, characterised by less animosity. One issue the  Minister wanted to look at was the use of fire in the high country, given the build-up of fuel on the conservation estate. Mr Worth has a specific interest in this as he is also the Minister of Internal Affairs, with responsibility for the New Zealand Fire Service. The Department of Conservation and conservationists had traditionally viewed burn-offs as inappropriate. "The reality, of course, is that burn-offs are one of the key pasture tools of runholders." He said recent research by Landcare Research and Scion, a Crown research institute, and the experience of farmers had shown fire could be an effective tool to manage the build-up of vegetation.