I came across this on Facebook:
The middle sign warns of the danger of using gas or liquid fuel cookers, heaters and lights without adequate ventilation.
The bottom one reads:
We would have the money to restore this hut if you all stopped voting for that dork John Key.
The sign has the Department of Conservation logo and the bottom but it’s not in DoC’s usual green and yellow colours.
If it was put there by a political activist it’s up to DoC to worry about unauthorised signs on its property.
If it was put up or condoned by a DoC staff member then I’m reminded of what former State Services’ Commission Mark Prebble said in an interview with Kathryn Ryan:
“Public servants have to implement the policies of the government of the day
Many people come to government to try to support a good cause. They don’t realise the one who has to determine which good cause is to be supported is the democratically minister of the day. And quite a lot of departments, not slinging off at their professionalism but say DOC, you get a lot of people who join DOC because they know they want to save a kakapo and if not a kakapo it will be the lesser spotted whatever. And if the lesser spotted whatever is not on the minister’s list of priorities they’ll find it hard to do.
A key part of the role of senior public servants is to explain to them well it is the minister who has to take the heat in public about that and the public servant really isn’t just employed to follow their own interests and if they want to follow their interests they can go and work in the private sector like anyone else. . .
. . . No public servant should be zealous about the particular cause they’re interested in. They should be zealous about democracy and respecting the law. . .”
As for the content of the sign, the message should be directed at the former Prime Minister.
DoC would have the money to restore the hut if she and her government hadn’t added so much land to the conservation estate and paid well above the market price for much it.
I’m sure your Gween fans will think this is ok .. like the Sealord ad
Public servants are not barred from political activity. Check the State Service Commission rules.
They aren’t barred from political activity but they aren’t supposed to mix their politics and their work either.
Why would anyone say such a thing?
Especially when they are not supposed to?
This really is quite naughty!
Such cheek! Deservedly viral…
The last Para of your post says so much Ele.
My quite substantial knowledge of the St James Station purchase is significant evidence of support for your assertion.
To gain the access desired, maintain a degree of management and control of the physical environment was adequately catered for under the ownership of the Stevenson family. Tenure review, accepting the serious degrading aspects of removal of hands on management, would have secured the future without outright purchase let alone at the vastly OTT price we paid.
The government ownership of the high/back country was in serious trouble 20 years ago before the massive expansion of the DOC estate, as regards weed control, tracks, open access and preservation of a viable ecology.
Briar, blackberry, gorse,broom, hieracium, wilding pines, nasella tussock, sycamore, silver birch rabbits, stoats, weasels, deer, thar, chamois,goats, pigs et al are all now threatening to change the back country for ever and DOC is virtually powerless to intervene.
Removing the effort of the people who respect love and enjoy that area from the management scene entirely has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. The evidence is clear and increasingly manifesting with every visit I make to that awesome inspirational piece of New Zealand.
Right on your doorstep too, Ele. That’s in the Waianakarua Scenic Reserve. Be ironic if the person who put it up got to the hut across Ludemann land.
There is a TV ad where a car ends up parked by a sign that looks like a DOC sign
DOC is a farce and should be closed down. Huge areas of perfectly good land in New Zealand that could be used for building or mining of natural resources is “out of bounds” because it is classed as “conservation land”. That’ll go out the window in a heartbeat when the Chinese take over New Zealand Inc in a few years time.
Conservation land costs this country big time. Huge amounts of non productive land being “lorded over” by greenies and anti-establishment types. Tourism value I hear you cry! Really, back-packers crapping on the side of the roads and inside parks, south island water no longer safe to drink. We don’t get well heeled tourists here because there are hardly any decent resorts for them to spend money in. No, they use cruise ships. It’s the back-packer that comes here, and especially greenie types who like to keep their brains mulled with weed, who spend $30/day. We need to see what all this conservation land really costs us as taxpayers.