Labour is guilty of high country land grab

National leader Don Brash says the Labour Government is treating New Zealand farmers with contempt by turning the High Country Tenure Review into a Department of Conservation land grab.

“That contempt is demonstrated in the responses from Land Information Minister Pete Hodgson and Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons to the concerns about the High Country Tenure Review that I expressed yesterday.

“Pete Hodgson claims the Government is offering leaseholders choices - to be bought out of their leases, to acquire freehold title or to continuing leasing.

“In fact, his Government is launching an aggressive campaign to acquire legally held property rights, and Cabinet papers have explicitly mentioned compulsory land acquisition as an option.

“It is a land grab by any measure. It could see up to 600,000 stock units worth about $30 million a year vanishing from our books - this is clearly not good for any economy so dependent on agriculture,” says Dr Brash.

“The Government and its allies should stop treating farmers with contempt and start expressing their gratitude for the contributions our rural communities make to both the economy and the environment of this country,” says Dr Brash

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