Making the pre-Budget announcement at Queenstown Hill Station yesterday, flanked by deputy prime minister David Seymour and Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard, Mr Luxon said wilding pines were a ‘‘scourge’’ and an ‘‘environmental disaster’’.
The pines threatened productive farmland, hydro generation, sensitive water supplies and biodiversity across about 2 million hectares, as well as posing a ‘‘huge’’ wildfire risk, he said.
The additional money, which would come from the Ministry for Primary Industries, Department of Conservation and the International Visitor Levy, would bring total spending on wilding pine control to $109m over the next three years.
‘‘That's almost two and a-half times what we're spending currently each year.’’
The government would work with councils, iwi, farmers, other landowners and wilding control groups on a national pest management plan that would ensure ‘‘dedicated, consistent funding’’ to address the issue, Mr Luxon said.
Mr Hoggard thanked the wilding control groups he had met over the past two years for their strong advocacy on the issue.
Funding had been ‘‘chopping and changing’’ between different government agencies for too long, Mr Hoggard said.
‘‘I’ve found myself rather feeling guilty, because I know what you've been telling me is correct; that not spending enough was going to take us backwards, not forwards.
‘‘It's been a tough couple of years working away on how can we could get the funding to make this happen, so I'm glad to be able to do that.’’
Otago Regional Council chairwoman Hilary Calvert said the extra funding would be a ‘‘wonderful boost’’ to wilding pine control efforts in the region, but a national pest management plan was even more significant.
‘‘The important thing is the funding doesn't come and go, that we look at things nationally and come up with an enduring answer to this pest.’’
The plan would need to address the issue of pine plantations, established for carbon credits, which were spreading seed beyond their boundaries.
That required a government response, possibly with legislation, Ms Calvert said.
Federated Farmers Otago president Anna Gillespie said it was a ‘‘really good day for farmers and tourism, and a bad day for pine trees’’.
The focus now needed to be on the long-term strategy, including the issue of carbon-credit pine plantations, Ms Gillespie said.
Whakatipu Wilding Control Group deputy chairwoman Vanessa van Uden said the announcement was ‘‘fantastic news’’ for wilding control groups across the country.
The additional funding was important, but so was recognition the battle against wilding pines could not succeed without a ‘‘long-term plan and long-term, sustainable funding’’.
Ms van Uden said she hoped the funding could be maintained across political cycles.
‘‘An enormous amount of time and effort has been spent by people to get to today, and it's great they've been heard, but you don't want to have to do that every three years.’’
