Watch: Potaka holds stand-up after scrapping controversial conservation land clauses

Author: Julia Gabel,
Publish Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2026, 2:11pm

Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says controversial clauses in the Government’s radical conservation law reforms that would have allowed land to be disposed of or exchanged will be removed.

It comes after weeks of contention over whether the reforms, which mark the most significant changes to the country’s conservation law in almost four decades, would lead to the large-scale sale of conservation land via its disposal and exchange provisions.

“I have never supported the large-scale disposal of conservation land and it was never my intention with the bill currently at play,” Potaka told an Environmental Defence Society conference in Auckland this week.

“But over recent weeks, it has become clear that many New Zealanders have been left with a different impression, and that’s on me, that’s on us.

“We were not clear enough about how the bill protects the places New Zealanders cherish, so we are going to fix that.”

Potaka said he had met with Forest and Bird and the Environmental Defence Society the previous night.

“I will be taking out the disposal and exchange provisions from that bill.”

Potaka said New Zealanders had over the past few weeks showed how deeply they cared about nature and conservation.

“I also want you to know that I have heard and listened to you and many, many others. The truth is none of us would be here today if we didn’t care deeply about our taiao [natural world], nature and conservation.

“We might not always agree on how to protect it, we might have different ideas on how we want to modernise the conservation system, and it does need to be modernised.

“I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone or heard from anyone who has said the conservation system is working so effectively we should just retain it as is. But we all want strong conservation outcomes for Aotearoa.”

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, who is an advocate for environmental development for economic benefit, said he would need to find a “common ground” with Potaka following the announcement.

Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones during a press conference at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

He said his party, New Zealand First, was in favour of getting economic outcomes from conservation land.

“It would be a lie for me not to take ownership of that,” he said to the crowd in Auckland.

“I know I’m talking to an audience that may be horrified by that.”

He said if NZ First was in government after the election they will continue to push for these economic outcomes. He referred to a “culture of cancellation in New Zealand politics”

Labour Party spokesperson for conservation Priyanca Radhakrishnan agreed current conservation laws was a “dog’s breakfast” but the current legislation goes way further then what it claims.

Minutes after Potaka made his announcement at the event in Auckland, National Minister Chris Penk reiterated the announcement to the House in Parliament.

Critics have been fearful over what the potential loosening of existing constraints on selling Crown-owned conservation lands could have meant and whether it would lead to the large-scale sale of prized conservation sites.

Potaka has always rejected this, saying it would instead involve “bits and bobs” that had little to no real conservation value.

That however was not enough comfort for some of the sharpest critics, including Forest and Bird, who recently released a map which they claimed marked the land at risk, and argued that the bill would shift the intention of the legislation “from protection to exploitation”.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.