Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Winston Peters accuses Labour of stealing his party's policy to re-establish the NZ Forestry Service

Nicholas Jones
By Nicholas Jones
Investigative Reporter·NZ Herald·
6 Sep, 2017 11:57 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Jacinda Ardern on bringing back the NZ forestry service and talks about logging rights.

Labour's pledge to set up a forestry service in Rotorua has been praised by a major timber processor.

However, NZ First leader Winston Peters has accused Labour of "dishonesty" and stealing his party's long-standing policy to re-establish the NZ Forestry Service.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern announced the policy after a tour of Red Stag Timber near Rotorua today.

She said she wanted to see wood processed and manufactured onshore - rather than being sent overseas as raw logs.

A Labour government would give first preference for using wood in building projects, she said, such as its "KiwiBuild" programme to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It would also require the sale of logging rights on more than 50ha to be approved by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO).

Ardern could not say how much setting up the new service would cost or how large it would be, saying Labour had been unable to get details from the Ministry for Primary Industries as to how many staff worked on forestry issues.

"It seems it is really a handful of staff working out of MPI. That suggests to us there is probably room for that to be scaled up.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"At the core of what they will be doing is coordinating our national forestry plan - making sure they are providing a service to those who are looking to use their own marginal land [for forestry], plus making sure that we are utilising Crown land to maximise possible planting. It is about making sure we have that security of supply [for domestic processors]."

Marty Verry, a director at the family-owned Red Stag, said a new service would help bridge the gap between industry and central government.

"You've got the regions and industry doing their thing and you have got the bureaucrats in Wellington thinking they know what's going on.

"But they don't have a clue. And they don't interact much with us at all. It is about embedding them in our region so they understand what we need and what we are trying to do."

Discover more

New Zealand

Labour: New forestry service for Rotorua

06 Sep 09:20 PM

Verry took Ardern on a tour of the processing site, including a cockpit-like control room that overlooked the processing floor. After Ardern sat in the control seat she was told enough wood had been processed in those few minutes for four houses.

After the tour Ardern met Labour supporters in town, including former broadcaster Tamati Coffey, who is standing in Waiariki for Labour and bidding to upset Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell.

Several children were presented to Ardern by parents keen for photographs, although one toddler was much more concerned with the M&Ms he had just dropped on the ground.

Ardern told the rally she had spent time in the nearby forestry town of Murupara, and pledged to bring the forestry service out of Wellington and to Rotorua.

After she finished speaking Winston Peters' campaign bus rolled past, and it wasn't long before the NZ First leader had issued a press release attacking Labour for policy plagiarism.

"The desperate two old parties are obviously rifling through our speeches and documents for ideas," Peters said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's only nine days since New Zealand First organised a major forestry industry roundtable in Whangarei. We've long had a policy to revitalise the forestry industry and restore the Forest Services, disbanded by the Labour government in 1987.

"That was followed by National selling most of the state forests in the 1990s."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

'Stop this madness': Police promise crackdown on illegal dirt bikers

10 Jul 03:52 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Midweek windfall: Winning Lotto ticket sold in Rotorua

10 Jul 02:37 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Heavy rain warning likely for BoP – MetService

10 Jul 12:40 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

'Stop this madness': Police promise crackdown on illegal dirt bikers

'Stop this madness': Police promise crackdown on illegal dirt bikers

10 Jul 03:52 AM

Several parks and reserves have been vandalised in recent weeks.

Midweek windfall: Winning Lotto ticket sold in Rotorua

Midweek windfall: Winning Lotto ticket sold in Rotorua

10 Jul 02:37 AM
Heavy rain warning likely for BoP – MetService

Heavy rain warning likely for BoP – MetService

10 Jul 12:40 AM
Rotorua council takes back control of parking services

Rotorua council takes back control of parking services

09 Jul 09:40 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP