http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6632634/DOC-open-for-trade
The National-led government's commercialisation of the Department of Conservation appears to be going down well with businesses, research released to parliament shows.
A survey of DOC stakeholders, including 17 businesses, showed that under National's mandate to make DOC more commercial, there had been an "attitudinal shift" within the department manifested in an openness to enterprise on conservation land.
Done right its not as scary as its sounds but what are the chances of it being done right.
Look forward to turnstiles that demand a gold coin at every entry point.
"In particular, businesses reported very good experiences with the department's new commercial division, although there is frustration that DOC is unwilling to provide information unless it is requested under the Official Information Act."
There must be some sort of misunderstanding going on here, because nearly all requests to DoC for information are under the Official Information Act by default.
yeah but some businesses may not be aware of this.
ii've seen an book that was largely devoted to red tpe put up by doc in trying to gt a cafe running and run a guiding business at mt cook,
I can see how it'd be irritating if they can't always just phone and talk to someone to get info they want straight away. Some government departments are notorious for taking the maximum amount of time legally allowed for responding to any request, which they're not meant to do although it's also a sign of being under-resourced. Frequently people who get assigned OIA requests for responding to are already overloaded with their primary jobs.
The OIA's awesome, though. If you sent a letter to the Coca Cola company asking something like the amount of Pump Water Bottles that were sold in a given year (as I once tried my luck in doing), you'd never hear back from them... but send something similar to the a government department and it's required to actually tell you as a public service, or do everything it can to help you find the part of the government which holds the information you requested.
having all their recent staff cutbacks won't make life any easier for them..
Probably see more on the conservation side of things like the Genesis Whio deal.
Although who knows might start see advertising in huts, what better place/time to advertise a warm sleepingbag than where/when you would really want one.
