Kate Wilkinson has been appointed Associate Conservation Minsiter.
This move recognises that the Minister, Tim Groser, is out of New Zealand a lot because of the demands of his role as Trade Minister.
One of the new Associate Minsiter’s urgent tasks will be investigating one of the land mines left by Labour which has yet to explode – the costs of looking after high country land surrendered under tenure review or bought outright which is now part of the DOC estate.