Rotorua candidates and party representatives talk pest control. Photo / Laura Smith
Rotorua candidates and party representatives talk pest control. Photo / Laura Smith
Cats, geese, rats and wallabies - all have an impact on native fauna and flora.
Rotorua candidates this week outlined where they stood on the “bold” goal of Predator Free 2050 at a Green Drinks Meet the Candidates event, co-hosted by Forest and Bird.
One of the set questions waswhether candidates believed Predator Free 2050 was achievable and whether it was enough.
“Some of our native forests are dying through the actions of browsing pests and rare species are threatened by predators not covered by Predator Free 2050. What would your party do about the wider problems of cats, mice, deer, goats, wallabies, pigs etc?”
Party founder Gareth Morgan frequently made headlines for his anti-cat views over the years, calling for domestic cats to be controlled. Raf Manji now leads the party.
Pocock said whether the goal of 2050 was achievable depended on investment.
She said the party was about community empowerment and its policy of a universal basic income would help community groups continue.
It would give people a base level of security from which they can make life decisions, including if they wanted to volunteer to help achieve a predator-free status.
The Labour Party’s Rotorua candidate Ben Sandford answered by saying New Zealand’s environment was incredible, and people came from all over the globe to see it.
“Anything we can do to make sure we are predator-free, we should be doing.”
He said the plan was bold and should be aimed for.
“I think if we use what we have now it is not achievable but as more things come on in the future absolutely this is achievable.”
He said the plan only covered rats, stoats and possums and was therefore limited.
One lady had approached him during campaigning, he said, fearful of a cat ban. He assured the woman her three cats were safe.
But he said a range of species did need to be covered: “Canadian geese, they are out of control.”
Te Pāti Māori’s Rotorua candidate Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said many of the unique species needed protection.
“It’s achievable if it’s what we want.”
Young people in Aotearoa were holding the rest to account, she said.
“They are saying ‘we want it better’. And we’ve done it all to them ... it’s the fact we didn’t commit 20 or 30 years ago when we could see what was happening all around the world.”
Rotorua MP and National Party candidate Todd McClay said his party supported the plan, which he said was one it put in place through policy. It focused on pests that caused “a lot of harm”, he said.
He said it was achievable but it was about the way money was spent to drive the required outcomes.
Funding for pest control should allow enough numbers so hunters can still feed their families, while also minimising the environmental impact, he said.
As for the “big wallaby problem” around Rotorua, McClay said there needed to be better ways of using Government money to get population numbers down.
Wallabies near Lake Ōkataina. Photo / Andrew Warner
Act candidate Marten Rozeboom said pests - especially pigs, deer, possums, rabbits and hares - impacted farmers.
Possum, deer and pig were “great carriers” of tuberculosis, he said.
The national dairy herd was, in the majority, TB-free, which made it attractive to customers, he said.
“It’s a shocking disease ... it needs to be controlled.”
Rozeboom farmed in Southland where there was a pest control board paid for by a per-hectare farm levy.
When pests were identified, a management officer was called to take care of the problem.
He said this could be scaled up to include conservation land, depending on the public’s willingness to pay for it.
Independent candidate Jonn Naera said he would lift any limits on the numbers of pests able to be culled and supported existing programmes that focused on education and using “natural trapping” and chemical-free methods of control.
“If a cat is hunting a bird, I’m not one to interfere with nature.
“But if a cat is carrying diseases, let’s hunt the cat.”
Green Party representative Kaya Sparke said Predator Free 2050 was a bold goal, but bold goals were needed.
The party had a strong biodiversity focus, she said, which included using a mātauranga Māori approach.
The Greens’ policy included support for landowners, hapū, and local communities to care for and regenerate native biodiversity, as well as “adequately resource” the Department of Conservation.
NewZeal candidate Kariana Black-Vercoe was invited to attend the event.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.
