paparoa great walk

A government PR question in parliament today (Nat MP to Nat Minister asking him to detail just how awesome government policy is) to give Nick Smith an opportunity to repeat his press release. http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/40836

I missed the extension to paporoa national park

the minister of conservation maggie barry didnt answer the question

That was asked about at the end of the VDO clip. something about 'conflict of interest' ?. Original press release was from Nick Smith, Minister of Environment (and Minister of Building & Housing).

She is related to the Monk family, so has stepped away from Pike River issues due to the conflict of interest.

The problem we are having here is not the Great Walk in itself. Personally I see it as being a decent route in an area that justifies one. Sure it isn't another Milford or Kepler, but a family member who lives close by tells me the area is different and definitely worth a visit. (I'd guess the underlying geology is the reason for both this and the coal mine.) Even the idea of a memorial to the workers works for me. If the notion of D0C making a profit from the operation rankles, remember they are a public service organisation. If you really wanted to you could make the case for that profit to be ring-fenced to West Coast species protection (eg the unique snail populations). And I do believe there is a good economic case - these tracks do bring incomes and jobs into the area. It is the unfinished business with the mine itself which raises the questions. We all know that this govt talked up big and took all the photos ops - but cravenly failed to deliver. We all know that the reason why no-one was prosecuted was not a lack of anyone guilty, but too many. And we all know that when they promised reformed H&S legislation to prevent this from happening again, they cowardly caved in the face of special interest pressure. So yes I understand the disquiet. It smells a little too much of a political pay-off, a cheap way of diverting the anger from their lack of action with respect to the mine itself. And maybe it is too soon; there are many families and people in the area who will find all this still too raw. Maybe the whole idea needed more consultation and discussion in the various interested communities before we were ready for it. But ugly or not - it is going to happen. In the long run it will be a good thing; in the shorter term it will prove a double-edged sword for the govt, who may find they've just dug up resentments and disquiets that still lay in shallow graves.

The ODT seems to be in favour. http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/363587/remembering-pike-rivers-29

It is disingenuous to say the families are divided. We have one wife of a deceased miner say that she is opposed. She has the right to her opinion. However, the track was proposed by the families themselves. They are not divided; they are in favour - just not unanimously. If you want to oppose it for other reasons then go ahead.

@Rygo80 "However, the track was proposed by the families themselves." That's interesting .. do you have a link for this please? Not a trick question, I'm genuinely curious to know more.

do the families understand how great walks will operate? all the publicity and advertising? extra hut fees that DOC pockets? they bring in a lot of foreigners, because of being promoted overseas alongside Air New Zealand, you dont necessarily get high no's of NZers on great walks, theres a very high percentage of the walkers are foreigners. the memorial aspect will mean little to foreigners, NZers will have to queue up with foreigners to book their place on the walk, NZ taxes will pay to build the walk and yo will pay again to walk it. they will have to blast a track through a narrow river gorge in one place to put the track through, there is a minimum standard for the tracks and they are often like single lane roads.