“Communication from the OIO has indicated that applications received by them will be processed in a timely manner under the rules the application faces on the day.”
The current applications for the Huiarua and Matanui sales, lodged last month, will take up to 55 working days to process.
“This means those applications will be processed under the current rules,” Mr Williams said.
“With the special forestry test favouring forestry conversions, the pathway to them being rubber-stamped as approved is almost guaranteed, but there is an ability to lodge an objection which will be considered by the panel.
“If the panel believes there is merit in the objection, this will be passed on to the applicant for consideration and if warranted, the applicant can respond to the panel with some mitigation that will solve the problem or not.
“Then it is up to the panel to consider whether the objection and mitigation will have a material influence on whether the application will be approved or rejected.”
Mr Williams said the long and short of it was that an objection needed to be more than an emotional one and that Federated Farmers Gisborne-Wairoa would be lodging an objection to the sale of the properties for forestry.
“There has also been a petition launched to send in as an objection to the OIO.
“A copy of it can be found on the Gisborne-Wairoa Federated Farmers Facebook page and also at Farmlands in Gisborne, as well as being emailed around.
“We need as many people as possible in Gisborne to sign the petition and help to try and save these iconic farms,” he said.
“As well as doing this, we will be petitioning Minister Damien O'Connor to turn down the sale should it make it through the OIO process, which seems ever more increasingly likely.
“I encourage everyone to send the minister an email imploring him to decline the sale. Ultimately he has the power to decline and I believe that will be the best opportunity to stop this, via the minister and the Government.”
Mr Williams said the community also needed to be asking questions of MP Kiri Allan.
“For someone who was elected on a pro-Gisborne campaign platform, her silence on this issue has been deafening.
“Minister Allan, where are you? We need you to stand up for our region and push back against the regulation that on their current trajectory will leave you without a region to represent.”
Mr Williams last week attended a Zoom webinar with Stuart Nash and representatives from all parties involved in forestry — from Federated Farmers to representatives from carbon farming interests and Maori forestry interests.
“The one thing that was apparent is that everyone agrees there is a problem and it needs to be sorted. However there is a complete lack of solutions being suggested.
“All parties appear to be only interested in their own self-interest and what is best for them,” he said. “Until we can get everyone on the same page and working to a common goal it is hard to see any progress being made on fixing this shmozzle.”
Mr Williams said he feared this region was set to be willingly sacrificed for the betterment of everyone else except the people who lived and worked on the land and those who provided services.
“In a time that food scarcity and prices are further creating a divide between people, we cannot continue sacrificing our best agricultural land for the interests of foreign nationals and companies. Enough is simply enough.
“As an example, if Huiarua was anywhere else in this country it would most likely be in dairy farms,” he said. That is the class of land we are talking about.
“Just because it is isolated does not mean that it is poor, unproductive land that is only good for trees.
“We need to stop this sale and we need to get everyone in this district to let the politicians know that we are not happy.
“Get on your emails and sign the petition before it's too late.”
