An Official Information Act request by the Otago Daily Times shows the annual fee paid to Doc by police is $147,500, plus GST, each year.
Police declined to say how much they were charged for each of their radio network repeaters - or where they were located - citing a security risk to their network.
Questions directed to Police Minister Judith Collins were referred to the Conservation Minister, Kate Wilkinson, and were in turn referred yet again to her department.
Doc business services deputy director-general Grant Baker said the department charged rentals to a wide range of organisations, both public and private, which used telecommunications equipment on public conservation land.
He said charging between government departments was a long-standing practice for the public sector as a way to ensure transparency.
"Just as the police pay Doc for telecommunications rentals, Doc itself pays a wide range of departments for services provided to Doc."
Mr Baker said the police rental paid to Doc is "significantly discounted from normal commercial rentals to reflect the nature of police activity".
"This principle applies to other emergency services and public safety organisations conducting activities on public conservation land."
A former police radio engineer, who helped establish the network, said it was "ridiculous" police were required to pay another Government department for the right to install a public service radio on public land.
The retired engineer said most landowners were pleased to help, but "Doc was the worst landlord/landowner in the country to deal with".
"They had an absolutely ingrained attitude to the use of conservation estate by NZ Police for public safety radio stations, treating them in the concession process as if they were just another FM talkback radio station generating revenue."
There were several hundred radio repeaters throughout New Zealand, including many in Otago and Southland, and they were largely unobtrusive and inaccessible to the public.
"This is public safety radio.
"It helps people who are lost, or have crashed their car on the Haast Pass while there to look at the Doc estate," he said.
