Great Barrier conservation cuts just the beginning

The loss of staff from Great Barrier Island is the beginning of a significant reduction of frontline staffing as DOC scrambles to find $54 million in cost savings over four years, the Green Party said today.

“In the face of the biggest biodiversity crisis in New Zealand’s history, John Key’s Government has slashed funding for conservation,” said Green Party conservation spokesperson Kevin Hague.

“It defies belief that the staff on Great Barrier Island can be cut by a third without adversely impacting their frontline work protecting threatened species. It is simply not credible that these six positions were all administrative ones delivering nothing of value.

“The move is absolutely shameful and unacceptable.”

Kevin Hague is calling on the Minister of Conservation to give her word that government spending on DOC’s frontline conservation work will not be reduced in any way.

“The Department of Conservation is supposed to manage a third of the country, all the tracks and huts in our parks, and protect our precious native species, many on the verge of extinction. Budget cuts of this magnitude are simply absurd in this, the International Year for Biodiversity.”