The seed for the government’s recent Budget announcement of $79 million for additional wilding pine control funding over the next three years was planted during a Skyline Queenstown gondola ride last year.
Joining Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and government MP Joseph Mooney was Whakatipu Wilding Control Group (WCG) chair Grant Hensman, who’s also a Skyline director.
"I was lucky enough to get in the gondola with the PM through some connections, and I think he thought he was going to get a talk about the luge and the building programme up there," Hensman says.
"But I manoeuvred the conversation to the tree problem, which is immense.
"I said, ‘look outside the window [at the hillsides], these are all wilding pines, self-sown, and there’s nothing to stop them apart from us.
"I pointed out it’s going to threaten tourism if it’s not controlled."
When the PM exited up top, "I almost felt a little guilty I cornered him," Hensman quips.
Mooney says he and South Island MPs, in particular, had already been lobbying for more wilding control funding — funding had reduced after the previous government’s ‘Jobs for Nature’ programme wound down.
"Locally we were $3.8m behind in maintenance," Hensman says.
Mooney: "It was brilliant to have this opportunity in the gondola, with Grant, to really sheet it home.
"And the PM and the Deputy PM both acknowledged Grant and myself for our advocacy on this when they made the announcement [in May]."
Ministers Andrew Hoggard and Tama Potaka were also instrumental, Mooney says.
Ironically, Hensman recalls WCG’s founding chair Peter Willsman "also managed to get a ride up with [former PM] John Key one time and we got $800,000".
