ACT
MP Gerry Eckhoff has today made yet another series of
bizarre claims says Minister for Land Information Pete
Hodgson.
Eckhoff claims a report on mineral resources in
the high country is being 'suppressed' when it is freely
available to anybody that wants it from Land Information New
Zealand (LINZ). Indeed, a number of media outlets already
have it.
Eckhoff also resuscitates the tired old line
that the tenure review process is a land grab when the fact
is that the Crown already owns all the land subject to the
process. By definition, the Crown cannot 'grab' what it
already owns. Eckhoff then appears to attack the very
process (tenure review) through which high county
leaseholders can obtain freehold title to the land.
Eckhoff is also wrong to assert that minerals cannot be
recovered from land in the Conservation Estate. That's
simply not true. Around 90 per cent of applications for
access arrangements for mining on conservation land are
approved, usually with environmental
conditions.
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